Trial reportBMC medicine2026
Neoadjuvant camrelizumab combined with metronomic chemotherapy in patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a pilot randomized phase 2 trial.
Trial report in BMC medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Concurrent versus sequential immune checkpoint inhibition in the neoadjuvant treatment of resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2027Review
- Tertiary lymphoid structures in neoadjuvant and perioperative cancer immunotherapy: a review and proposed framework for biomarker interpretation and validation.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
27 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCompared to conventional chemotherapy, metronomic chemotherapy (MCT), with lower drug dosage which may cause less damage to the immune system, has shown potential for synergy in combination with PD-1-based immunotherapy. However, this synergistic immunotherapy efficacy in neoadjuvant setting for advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) requires further clinical validation.
methodsThis pilot phase 2, single-center, randomized clinical trial enrolled 30 untreated patients with resectable stage II or III ESCC. Participants were randomly assigned to either the MCT group (paclitaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil) or the IO + MCT group (same regimen plus camrelizumab). Primary outcomes included the pCR rate after neoadjuvant therapy, and the safety of each regimen assessed by adverse events. Digital spatial profiling (DSP-WTA), multiplex immunofluorescent staining (mIF), and bulk RNA sequencing were performed to explore the possible therapeutic mechanisms.
resultsTwenty-four patients (13 in MCT, 11 in IO + MCT) underwent R0 resection. The pCR rates were 15.4% in the MCT group and 54.5% in the IO + MCT group. Both treatments were well tolerated, with manageable side effects. DSP-WTA and mIF revealed that IO + MCT effectively decreased the number of tumor-infiltrating T cells with the positive expression of terminal exhaustion marker CD39 and increased the number of primary and secondary follicle-like tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs), particularly in pCR patients.
conclusionsNeoadjuvant MCT combined with camrelizumab led to an increased pCR rate (54.5 vs. 16.7%) in ESCC patients compared to MCT alone. This combination therapy may offer a promising approach for enhancing cancer treatment outcomes.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier: ChiCTR2000039638.
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