Serplulimab Combined With Nab-paclitaxel and Cisplatin in Neoadjuvant Therapy for Resectable Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: a Study Protocol of Prospective Single-center, Open Label and Exploratory Cohort Study (SNC-01)

Abstract Objective: This study aims to investigate the potential clinical impact of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

The efficacy and safety of combining the programmed death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor serplulimab with nab-paclitaxel and cisplatin as neoadjuvant therapy in patients with resectable ESCC will be evaluated. Methods and analysis: A prospective, single-center, open-label cohort study will enroll 80 patients, with 40 patients allocated to the experimental group and 40 patients to the control group. Patients in the experimental arm will undergo 3 cycles of neoadjuvant therapy comprising serplulimab, cisplatin, and nab-paclitaxel, while those in the control arm will receive 3 cycles of neoadjuvant therapy with cisplatin and nab-paclitaxel. The primary efficacy endpoint will be the assessment of pathological complete response (pCR) following neoadjuvant therapy. Secondary efficacy endpoints will include major pathological response (MPR), disease-free survival, objective response rate (ORR), and monitoring of adverse events (AEs).

Ethics: Ethics approval has been obtained from the Ethics Committee at the First Affiliated Hospital (Xijing Hospital) of Air force Military Medical University (KY20242052-C-1).