ReviewESMO open2025
Is pathological response an adequate surrogate marker for survival in neoadjuvant therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors?
Review in ESMO open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Clinicopathological and molecular characteristics associated with pathological complete response in neoadjuvant immunotherapy for breast cancer.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Prognostic significance of ypN status after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy in resectable NSCLC: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
- Neoadjuvant dose-dense anthracycline and cyclophosphamide in combination with carboplatin, paclitaxel, and pembrolizumab for triple-negative breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Pooled it
- Neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy with afatinib for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (neoCHANCE-2): an open-label, single-arm, phase 2 study.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Trial
- Efficacy, safety, and biomarker analysis of neoadjuvant camrelizumab plus apatinib as a chemotherapy-free strategy for early-stage triple-negative breast cancer: a phase II study.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2026Trial
- Article
- Efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant targeted therapy in surgically treated patients with ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Article
- Radiation dose and pathological complete response rate of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a model-based dose-response meta-analysis.Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al] · 2026Article
- Efficacy and safety of sintilimab-based neoadjuvant regimens in patients with resectable gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma: a single-arm systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2026Article
- Standardizing pCR/MPR Assessment in NSCLC After Neoadjuvant Therapy: Challenges and Perspectives.Cancers · 2026Review
- Efficacy of nab-paclitaxel combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors in solid tumors: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Translational cancer research · 2026Article
- Neoadjuvant metformin on clinical and pathological response in non-diabetic patients with non-metastatic breast cancer: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026Review
- Early- and advanced-stage MSI-H non-colorectal cancers: best management and challenges in 2025.ESMO gastrointestinal oncology · 2026Review
- Targeting rare oncogenic mutations in resectable non-small cell lung cancer: emerging perioperative strategies.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Review
- The evolving role of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in resectable non-small cell lung cancer: a narrative review.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Review
- Complete Pathological Response to Neoadjuvant Treatment in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma-Can We Achieve a Long-Term Survival? A Narrative Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pathological response (PR) is an oncological outcome measure that indicates the therapeutic response to neoadjuvant therapy. In clinical trials involving neoadjuvant or perioperative interventions, overall survival and disease/event-free survival are typically the primary outcome measures. Although some evidence suggests that pathological complete response (pCR) can serve as a surrogate marker for the primary endpoint in prospective trials, it remains uncertain whether pCR is a true surrogate marker for patients with cancer undergoing curative resection across all solid tumours. Here, we review the role of PR as a surrogate marker and its associated methodological issues in the era of perioperative immune checkpoint inhibitors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.