Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month: 2022 Immunotherapy Research Updates

This past year has seen several new approvals of immunotherapies for the treatment of esophageal cancer and gastroesophageal junction cancer, including as a first-line treatment. 

• On April 16, 2021, the U.S. FDA approved nivolumab (Opdivo) in combination with chemotherapy for patients with advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and esophageal adenocarcinoma, regardless of PD-L1 expression status. 
• On May 5, 2021, the FDA approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with chemotherapy for a subset of patients with HER2-negative advanced cancers.
• On June 29, 2021, the European Commission approved pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy for the same subset of patients. 
• On October 21, 2021, the Commission approved nivolumab in combination with chemotherapy for a similar subset of patients. 

This April for Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month, discover the new research, new treatments, and progress for a future immune to esophageal cancer.

Cancer Research and Treatment Update

Cancer patients and leading oncologists joined a lively discussion across 14 informative sessions at the 2021 Virtual Immunotherapy Patient Summit last October. Learn about the immunotherapy treatment experience and gain valuable insight into how clinical trials work.

Esophageal Cancer Patient Story

Since her diagnosis in 2016, Michelle’s treatment plan has included chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and immunotherapy.  

Cancer Scientist Spotlight 

CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR Tal Danino, PhD, of Columbia University is leveraging modern approaches from synthetic biology to engineer safe and effective bacterial immunotherapies for cancer.

READ TAL's RESEARCH

Immunotherapy for Esophageal Cancer Info Update

With the four approvals in the last year, oncologists’ armamentarium is changing rapidly. As the research and treatment landscape evolves, we keep our information up to date.

READ Esophageal Cancer UPDATE

Find a Esophageal Cancer Clinical Trial

A variety of new and promising cancer immunotherapy treatments are only available to patients in clinical trials. Help speed the development of potentially lifesaving drugs. Discover trials for which you or a loved one may be eligible with the CRI Immunotherapy Clinical Trial Finder.

FIND A Cancer Clinical TRIAL

Support Esophageal Cancer Research

CRI Tech Impact Awardee Neville E. Sanjana, PhD, of the New York Genome Center led research that identified positive regulators of T cell functions and developed the single-cell genomics method OverCITE-seq for high-throughput quantification. The results provide several strategies for improving next-generation T cell therapies by the induction of synthetic cell programmes. This Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month, support lifesaving cancer immunotherapy research. 

DONATE to esophageal cancer research