Specially, fibroblast-enriched tumors, which had a higher infiltration of fibroblasts, and activity of the TGF-β and EMT pathway failed to become the IE subtype during anti-PD-L1 blockade, indicating that combine simultaneous stromal signaling suppression (for example, anti-TGF-β antibody or anti-fibroblast) with immune checkpoint blockade may be a beneficial therapeutic strategy for ESCC patients with a fibrotic TME phenotype. Here, TGFB1 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.