Single-cell transcriptomic analysis reveals distinct cancer-associated fibroblast signatures in treatment-refractory esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Despite neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy (nCCRT), approximately half of patients exhibit incomplete pathological response with persistent lymph node (LN) infiltration. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing on tumor and adjacent normal tissues from 10 ESCC patients post-nCCRT, stratified by LN infiltration status (n=5 each group).