Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Nov 27, 2024; 16(11): 3408-3412
Published online Nov 27, 2024. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v16.i11.3408
Immunotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer
Chang-Fei Li, Li-Li Lian, Qiu-Ru Li, Yan Jiao
Chang-Fei Li, Department of Patient Service Center, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130000, Jilin Province, China
Li-Li Lian, Qiu-Ru Li, Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130000, Jilin Province, China
Yan Jiao, Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, General Surgery Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, Jilin Province, China
Author contributions: Jiao Y designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript; Li CF contributed to the discussion and design of the manuscript; Li CF, Lian LL, and Li QR contributed to the writing, and editing the manuscript, illustrations, and review of literature.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yan Jiao, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, General Surgery Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, No. 1 Xinmin Street, Changchun 130021, Jilin Province, China. lagelangri1@126.com
Received: June 17, 2024
Revised: August 20, 2024
Accepted: August 26, 2024
Published online: November 27, 2024
Processing time: 135 Days and 8.1 Hours
Abstract

This editorial discusses the article written by Chen et al that was published in the latest edition of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. The current study found that programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is considered as one of the pan-cancer biomarkers of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) treatment response. Four molecular subtypes are widely used to guide and evaluate the prognosis and diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer (GC) patients. Clinical trials of ICI treatment including Nivolumab, Pembrolizumab, Avelumab have been conducted for metastatic GC (mGC). The effects of various single agent ICIs on mGC therapy varied. ICIs combined with chemotherapy can indeed bring survival benefits to patients with mGC. Combining ICIs with chemotherapy can give more patients the chance of surgery in the treatment of GC transformation. However, not all PD-L1 positive patients can benefit from it. It is urgent to find better biomarkers to predict the response of ICIs for more precise clinical treatment.

Keywords: Immunotherapy; Metastatic; Gastric cancer; Combined therapy; Programmed cell death 1 ligand 1

Core Tip: The efficacy of different single agent immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in metastatic gastric cancer (mGC) treatment varies. ICIs combined with chemotherapy can indeed bring survival benefits to patients with mGC. In the future study, more biomarkers should be explored to clinically evaluate the response of ICI treatment to mGC treatment.