Authors:

Daniel Choi

Date Created:

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About Paper:

Esophageal cancer is the seventh leading cause of cancer death, with over 500,000 deaths worldwide in 2022. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the most common form of esophageal cancer and is a highly deadly cancer with limited therapeutic options. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have emerged as a breakthrough treatment by enhancing the immune system's ability to target and attack cancerous cells. However, optimal treatment timing still remains unclear. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of administering immune checkpoint inhibitors alongside chemotherapy before surgery (neoadjuvant) versus after surgery (adjuvant) in treating mice with ESCC. A mouse ESCC cell line was injected into the flank of mice to establish tumors. Western blot analysis was used to confirm that the ESCC cell line had the right features for testing immunotherapy. Two pilot studies were conducted, demonstrating that approximately two million ESCC cells are required for tumor formation without regression and that different injection sites result in varying rates of tumor formation. To investigate the efficacy of neoadjuvant versus adjuvant treatment, two cohorts of five mice will be treated with chemoimmunotherapy either before or after tumor resection. The chemoimmunotherapy regimen consists of a combination of chemotherapy and two immune checkpoint inhibitors: anti- PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4. The outcomes of this experiment will provide insights into the effects of therapy timing on tumor response and progression. Given the recent clinical shift toward testing neoadjuvant immunotherapy in ESCC, this work aims to inform treatment timing strategies by directly comparing the efficacy of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy.

Source:

Columbia / Neuroscience and Behavior / 2026

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Co-authors:

Daniel Choi