Additional in-depth studies with larger numbers of cases are needed to investigate HRD VUS in ESCC.A high TMB is an emerging biomarker of sensitivity to immune checkpoint inhibitors and has been shown to be significantly associated with a response to PD-1 and PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy (Le et al., 2015; Rizvi et al., 2015). Here, CD274 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.