Impact of baseline steroids on the efficacy of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy in locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Figure 1 Workflow of this study. SYSUCC: The Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center; 3^rd HSYSU: The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.

Figure 2 Immunochemotherapy regimen and pre-treatment medications. This bar chart shows the distribution of various drug combinations used in neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy for patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who were pre-treated with either dexamethasone or antihistamines.

Figure 3 Allergy Assessment. The figure showing that dexamethasone group is associated with a significantly lower incidence of allergies compared to antihistamine group.

Figure 4 Short-term efficacy assessment. A: Comparison of complete pathological response (pCR) between the dexamethasone and antihistamine groups. The P value is 0.268, indicating no statistically significant difference between the two groups; B: Comparison of major pathological response (MPR) between the dexamethasone and antihistamine groups. The P value is 0.416, indicating no statistically significant difference between the two groups; C: Comparison of pCR between the < 20 mg dexamethasone group and the 20 mg dexamethasone group. The P value is 0.928, indicating no statistically significant difference between the two dosage groups; D: Comparison of MPR between the < 20 mg dexamethasone group and the 20 mg dexamethasone group. The P value is 0.067, indicating no statistically significant difference between the two dosage groups. pCR: Complete pathological response; MPR: Major pathological response.

Figure 5 Long-term efficacy assessment. A: Comparison of overall survival (OS) between the dexamethasone and antihistamine groups. The log-rank test P value is 0.51, indicating no statistically significant difference in OS between the two groups; B: Comparison of progression-free survival (PFS) between the dexamethasone and antihistamine groups. The log-rank test P value is 0.49, indicating no statistically significant difference in PFS between the two groups; C: Comparison of OS between the < 20 mg dexamethasone group and the 20 mg dexamethasone group. The log-rank test P value is 0.13, indicating no statistically significant difference in OS between the two groups; D: Comparison of PFS between the < 20 mg dexamethasone group and the 20 mg dexamethasone group. The log-rank test P value is 0.0014, indicating a statistically significant difference in PFS between the two dosage groups, suggesting that 20 mg of dexamethasone may lead to better PFS outcomes. OS: Overall survival; PFS: Progression-free survival.