Meanwhile, other features, including gender, pathological differentiation, ALT level, and uric acid (UA) level, also exerted varying degrees of influence on the model’s decision-making process.The waterfall plot provided a holistic view of how different features interacted and contributed to the final prediction, thereby offering valuable insights into the complex relationships between clinical variables and treatment outcomes in ESCC patients receiving nICT. The gene discussed is GPT; the disease is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.