Adherens junction protein expression is associated with poor response to neoadjuvant FLOT chemotherapy and pro-inflammatory tumor microenvironment in esophageal adenocarcinoma

Esophageal adenocarcinomas represent aggressive gastrointestinal malignancies, characterized by poor survival and variable responses to perioperative therapies. Our study identified a significant association between adherens junction (AJ) protein expression and treatment response to FLOT chemotherapy. We demonstrate that AJ dysregulation occurs across histological subtypes and correlates with pro-inflammatory tumor microenvironment and extracellular matrix remodeling. These findings provide a foundation which could guide treatment selection, potentially avoiding ineffective therapies while identifying patients for alternative approaches. The adenocarcinoma samples analyzed in this study were part of a larger cohort for mass spectrometry proteomic analysis that also included esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (PEC) and normal esophageal tissue. All samples from this comprehensive cohort were preprocessed together up to and including the analysis of protein expression quantification, and the complete dataset is deposited in this upload.