Long-term efficacy and predictive correlates of response to nivolumab in Japanese patients with esophageal cancer.

The long-term efficacy of nivolumab in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its association with disease biomarkers are currently not well known. Therefore, we investigated the association in Japanese patients with treatment-refractory advanced esophageal cancer who participated in an open-label, single-arm, multicenter phase 2 study. Patients received nivolumab 3 mg/kg, intravenously every 2 weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity, and were followed up for 2 years after the initial dosing of the last patient. Tissue samples were collected before treatment, and analyzed for PD-L1, CD8+ of tumor and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and HLA class 1. Efficacy endpoints included objective response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), time to response and duration of response. Of 65 enrolled patients (83% male), 64 were evaluable for efficacy and 41 (63%) for biomarkers. The ORR, median OS, and survival rate were 17.2%, 10.78 months, and 17.2%, respectively. Time to response was 1.45 months and duration of response was 11.17 months. PD-L1 positivity of tumor cell was possibly associated with better PFS (2.04 vs 1.41 months, cut-off 1%) and OS (11.33 vs 6.24 months, cut-off 1%). Median OS was prolonged in patients with a median number of TILs >63.75% versus