{
  "abstract": "Objective: To determine whether pretreatment absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) is related to clinical outcomes among elderly patients with inoperable ESCC receiving definitive radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy.\n\nMethods: Elderly patients (≥ 60 years) with incurable ESCC who underwent programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitor therapy and definitive radiotherapy were retrospectively enrolled. ROC analysis identified the most discriminative ALC cutoff. Short-term efficacy was compared between groups, and Cox regression assessed factors related to overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS).\n\nResults: Data from 102 elderly patients were evaluated. The objective response rate (ORR) was 70.59%; median PFS and OS were 21 and 28 months, respectively. ROC analysis identified 1.24 × 10 ⁹ /L as the cutoff value for ALC. The response rate was markedly higher among patients with high ALC than among those with low ALC (86.0% vs. 51.1%, P < 0.001). ALC was identified as an independent factor associated with short-term treatment response by multivariate logistic regression (OR = 4.716, 95% CI: 1.167–19.062, P = 0.030). Longer median OS and PFS were observed in high-ALC patients. In the multivariate Cox analysis, higher ALC remained independently related to improved PFS (HR = 0.450, 95% CI 0.213–0.951, P = 0.036) and improved OS (HR = 0.425, 95% CI 0.184–0.982, P = 0.045).\n\nConclusion: Baseline ALC has the potential to be used to guide patient selection and individualized treatment planning, because this readily available biomarker was independently associated with treatment response and survival.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Radiotherapy, Yancheng Third People’s Hospital, The affiliated hospital of Jiangsu Medical College",
    "Department of Radiotherapy, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Yancheng Third People’s Hospital"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Youqin Jiang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Weiwei Chen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Daguang Ni"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Xu Liang"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ffemz7y6hafq3.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fonc.2026.1953153",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2026.1953153/full",
  "id": "ffemz7y6hafq3",
  "issns": [
    "2234-943X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2026.1953153/full",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "RC254-282"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2730|Inflammatory Biomarkers in Disease Prognosis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223391059",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2026.1953153/pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-23",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ffemz7y6hafq3.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:13Z",
      "native_id": "10.3389/fonc.2026.1953153",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2026.1953153/full"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:44:09Z",
      "native_id": "beff6a786bdb4e6b9e44f3541d8aa338",
      "source": "doaj",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2026.1953153"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2730|Inflammatory Biomarkers in Disease Prognosis",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Association between absolute lymphocyte count and outcomes of radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy in elderly patients with inoperable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma",
  "title_text": "Association between absolute lymphocyte count and outcomes of radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy in elderly patients with inoperable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T13:44:09Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ffemz7y6hafq3",
  "venue": "Frontiers in Oncology",
  "versions": []
}