Clinical Data from CheckMate 648 and KEYNOTE 590

This discussion provides a focused overview of the pivotal clinical trials that have defined the role of chemo-immunotherapy in the first-line treatment of advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The discussion highlights results from CheckMate 648 and KEYNOTE-590, both of which demonstrated that adding a PD-1 inhibitor, nivolumab or pembrolizumab, to platinum-based chemotherapy leads to meaningful improvements in overall survival compared with chemotherapy alone. The magnitude of benefit was greater in patients whose tumors expressed PD-L1, consistent with the biomarker-driven findings reported in each study. The segment also notes that the chemotherapy backbones used in these global trials typically incorporated cisplatin, even though oxaliplatin-based regimens are more commonly used in U.S. clinical practice. Together, these data underscore how CheckMate 648 and KEYNOTE-590 established chemo-immunotherapy as an important first-line standard for advanced ESCC.