Tumors version 1.1...were randomly assigned (1:1) to intravenous pembrolizumab 200 mg or placebo, plus 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin (chemotherapy)....At the first interim analysis (median follow-up of 22·6 months), pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy was superior to placebo plus chemotherapy for overall survival in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and PD-L1 CPS of 10 or more (median 13·9 months vs 8·8 months; hazard ratio 0·57 [95% CI 0·43–0·75]; p<0·0001), oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (12·6 months vs 9·8 months; 0·72 [0·60–0·88]; p=0·0006), PD-L1 CPS of 10 or more (13·5 months vs 9·4 months; 0·62 [0·49–0·78]; p<0·0001), and in all randomised patients (12·4 months vs 9·8 months; 0·73 [0·62–0·86]; p<0·0001).

We enrolled 38 patients who received pembrolizumab or nivolumab as second-line or later-line treatment for ESCC....Based on the expression levels of CD73 and PD-L1 (Figure 3), these patients were divided into four groups:...low expression levels of CD73/high expression levels of PD-L1 (Group C)....For 10 patients with partial response (PR), a higher PR rate (60%) was noted in the group C...patients in group C had better PFS than those in group B (p = 0.003)...a superior OS was found for group C compared to group B (p = 0.034)...better PFS and OS were found in patients with low expression levels of CD73 and high expression levels of PD-L1 compared to those with high expression levels of CD73 and low expression levels of PD-L1.