Considering the benefits of immunotherapy in advanced melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancers, and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma, we begin to consider whether immunotherapy is effective for esophageal cancer, which is extremely malignant and has a poor prognosis. There are a large number of clinical trials to study the application of immunotherapy such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, peptide vaccine, adoptive T cell transfer and oncolytic virus in esophageal cancer. Some already have preliminary results and show the advantages of immunotherapy in esophageal cancer, while others are still in progress. This review aims to introduce the feasibility and current status of immunotherapy in esophageal cancer.
Keywords: adoptive T-cell transfer; biomarker immune checkpoint inhibitor; esophageal cancer; immunotherapy; oncolytic virus; peptide vaccine.
© 2019 The Authors. Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.