Correlation Between Peripheral Blood Biomarkers and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Treatment of Advanced Esophageal Cancer

Objective To explore the effect of peripheral blood markers on the efficacy and prognosis of patients with advanced esophageal cancer treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).

Methods The case data of 61 patients with advanced esophageal cancer who met the inclusion criteria were collected. Data on clinical indicators and peripheral blood markers as well as objective response rate (ORR) and progression-free-survival (PFS) were obtained.

Results The median PFS of the included patients was 7.10 months (95%CI: 5.12-9.07). The ORR of patients with baseline lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) < 201 was better than that of patients with LDH≥201 (P < 0.05). Univariate analysis showed that baseline LDH0 < 201, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) < 3.9, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) < 240.3, and LDH1 < 249.0 two weeks after ICI treatment were significantly associated with significant improvement in PFS (P < 0.05). In multivariate analysis, patients with NLR0 < 3.9 had longer PFS (P < 0.05).

Conclusion LDH0 < 201, NLR0 < 3.9, PLR0 < 240.3, and LDH1 < 249.0 are positively correlated with the prognosis of patients with advanced esophageal cancer treated with ICIs.