Two significant studies in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology focus on oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC):
- AI-Assisted Diagnosis of OSCC: A large randomized trial involving nearly 12,000 participants, led by Xiang-Lei Yuan, tested an AI system for real-time detection of superficial OSCC and precancerous lesions. Participants underwent tandem endoscopy, with some receiving AI-assisted endoscopy first. The AI-first group showed significantly lower per-lesion and per-patient miss rates compared to the routine-first group, indicating that AI can help endoscopists identify more patients with early-stage OSCC.
- Treating Oligometastatic OSCC: The ESO-Shanghai 13 trial explored the benefits of combining systemic therapy with local therapy for patients with oligometastatic OSCC. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either systemic therapy alone or combined with local therapy. The combined therapy group showed a significantly longer median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival, suggesting that a more aggressive approach to treating oligometastatic sites could be beneficial. However, the study’s findings need further validation in a larger phase 3 trial, as only a small subset of patients received immunotherapy during the study.
These studies highlight the potential of AI in improving OSCC diagnosis and the effectiveness of combined therapies in treating oligometastatic disease, although further research is needed for confirmation.