Deep learning effectively identifies pathologic complete response in esophageal cancer.

A deep neural network-based endoscopic evaluation accurately detected pathologic complete response (PCR) in esophageal cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, achieving median sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy rates of 80%, 90%, and 85%, respectively. Among 1041 patients, 354 demonstrated PCR, correlating with significantly improved overall and recurrence-free survival. The findings suggest the potential for this AI technology to inform personalized, non-surgical treatment strategies, although further validation through prospective studies is essential.