Immunotherapy is an important treatment method in tumor therapy. Among them, programmed death-1/programmed death ligand-1 inhibitors are the immune preparations with mature application and great survival benefit at present. Programmed death-1/programmed death ligand-1 inhibitors brought better clinical benefits to patients with esophageal cancer and provided more favorable choice for the treatment of esophageal cancer. This article introduces the mechanism of action, application in esophageal cancer, and efficacy predictors of programmed death protein-1/programmed death protein ligand-1 inhibitors, aiming to provide a theoretical basis for the more rational use of programmed death protein-1/programmed death protein ligand-1 inhibitors in patients with esophageal cancer.
Esophageal cancer is one of the malignant tumors that poses a threat to human health, with both high incidence and malignancy. Currently, surgery following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is the standard treatment for locally advanced esophageal cancer; however, the long-term prognosis remains unsatisfactory. In recent years, inhibitors of programmed death protein-1 (PD-1) and its ligand (programmed death ligand-1, PD-L1) have achieved breakthrough progress in other solid tumors, and research on esophageal cancer is gradually being conducted. With the demonstration of good efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in the first-line and second-line treatment of advanced unresectable esophageal cancer, their incorporation into neoadjuvant treatment regimens has become a hot topic. Therefore, this article reviews the mechanism of action of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors and their application in the neoadjuvant treatment of esophageal cancer.