Figure 3.

Tumor‐associated immune cells (TAICs) in pretreatment EAC biopsies. (A) The mean densities (cells/mm²) of CD8⁺, FOXP3⁺, and PD‐1⁺ TAICs in the tumor epithelium (t‐epi), tumor stroma (t‐stroma), and non‐tumor stroma (stroma) of pretreatment EAC biopsies. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to detect overall difference of TAIC density between the three compartments. (B) The mean densities (cells/mm²) of CD8⁺, FOXP3⁺, and PD‐1⁺ TAICS in the tumor epithelium per tumor regression grade (TRG) of pretreatment EAC biopsies. (C) The mean densities (cells/mm²) of CD8⁺, FOXP3⁺, and PD‐1⁺ TAICs in the tumor stroma per TRG of pretreatment EAC biopsies. (D) The combined mean densities (cells/mm²) of CD8⁺, FOXP3⁺, and PD‐1⁺ TAICs in the tumor stroma per TRG of pretreatment EAC biopsies. (E) PD‐L1 expression by CPS in pretreatment biopsies versus TRG. The Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to detect differences in CPS between TRG low (1–3) and TRG high (4, 5) scores. (F) Kaplan–Meier analyses of the overall survival (OS) difference between PD‐L1‐negative (CPS < 1) and PD‐L1‐positive (CPS ≥ 1) pre‐nCRT biopsies. The log‐rank test was used to detect significant survival differences. (A–D) Linear‐by‐linear chi squared test was used to detect significant linear association of TAIC density and ordinal TRG scores. TAIC density in log₁₀ scale (Y‐axis).