TAMTherapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology1758-8359SAGE PublicationsSage UK: London, England10.1177/1758835922113962510.1177_17588359221139625ReviewImmune checkpoint inhibitors in resectable gastroesophageal cancers - a reviewMukherjeeSarbajitDepartment of Medicine – GI Medical Oncology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Scott Bieler Clinical Science Center, 9th Floor P-934, Elm & Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263, USAConceptualizationData curationFormal analysisInvestigationMethodologyWriting original draftWriting review editingParmarKanakDepartment of Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, USAData curationWriting review editingSmythElizabethDepartment of Oncology, Cambridge University Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UKConceptualizationWriting review editingSarbajit.Mukherjee@RoswellPark.org291120221417588359221139625227202231102022© The Author(s), 20222022SAGE Publications Ltd unless otherwise noted. Manuscript content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Licenseshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Gastroesophageal cancers (GEC) have a poor survival rate of 20–30% at 5 years, often due to delayed presentations. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by surgery or peri-operative chemotherapy and surgery are widely used as the standard of care for patients with resectable GEC. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have improved survival in metastatic and recurrent GEC which led to their application in resectable GEC. Based on the pivotal CheckMate 577 study results, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved nivolumab for patients with completely resected high-risk esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer (GEJC). Several ongoing trials with many ICIs could potentially improve resectable GEC outcomes. This review explores the rationale for using ICIs in resectable GEC and discusses the significance of reported clinical trials. Finally, we will examine some ongoing clinical trials and the challenges as well as prospects of ICIs in resectable GEC.

immunotherapypembrolizumabnivolumabesophageal cancergastric cancerperi-operativeadjuvantneo-adjuvantresectablecover-dateJanuary-December 2022typesetterts1