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Who Should Receive Immunotherapy for Advanced Gastroesophageal Cancer?

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Opinion Statement

This paper shines a light on the exciting progress being made in using immunotherapy to treat advanced gastroesophageal cancers. The positive results from trials using drugs like Pembrolizumab and Nivolumab are certainly encouraging and open new possibilities for treating this challenging disease. However, it is clear that we still have a lot to learn about how to predict which patients will benefit most from these treatments. The exploration of combining therapies and using machine learning to guide treatment shows promise. Moving forward, it is crucial that researchers and healthcare professionals continue to work together, sharing knowledge and findings to continue the advancements in this important area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Suhaib Khateeb MD, Meghana Singh MD, Ibrahim Halil Sahin MD & Anwaar Saeed MD

  2. Novant Health Cancer Institute, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Ludimila Cavalcante MD

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, AL Abdali Hospital, Amman, Jordan

    Noor Alnairat MD

  4. UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Meghana Singh MD, Ibrahim Halil Sahin MD & Anwaar Saeed MD

  5. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, USA

    Azhar Saeed MD

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Contributions

S.E.K. and A.S. conceptualized the review. S.E.K. wrote the original draft of the manuscript. N.A. prepared the figure and formulated the table. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript. A.S. provided supervision throughout the project. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anwaar Saeed MD.

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Conflict of Interest

We report the following conflicts of interest:

A.S. (Anwaar Saeed) reports research grants (to institution) from AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Clovis, Exelixis, Actuate Therapeutics, Incyte Corporation, Daiichi Sankyo, Five Prime Therapeutics, Amgen, Innovent Biologics, Dragonfly Therapeutics, KAHR Medical, and BioNTech and advisory board fees from Merck, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Exelixis, Taiho, and Pfizer. The remaining authors have no relevant financial interests to disclose.

No external funding was received for the conduct of this research or preparation of this manuscript. The authors confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. The authors further confirm that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by all of us.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Khateeb, S., Cavalcante, L., Alnairat, N. et al. Who Should Receive Immunotherapy for Advanced Gastroesophageal Cancer?. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 25, 496–509 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-024-01189-1

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