Frontiers in Immunology
Overall survival with immune checkpoint inhibitors across treatment settings and clinical and PD-L1-defined subgroups in advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials
Introduction To quantify overall-survival effects of immune-checkpoint-inhibitor (ICI)-containing regimens by treatment line and to evaluate whether clinical characteristics or PD-L1 definitions modify relative treatment benefit in advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Web of Science were searched from inception through 1 August 2026. Two reviewers independently screened records, assessed full texts, extracted data, and ev …