scholarly journals Current trends in the immunotherapy of metastatic and recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-47
Author(s):  
Yu. V. Kostalanova ◽  
K. A. Ganina ◽  
A. A. Makhonin ◽  
A. G. Gabrielyan
Keyword(s):  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Malignant Tumors ◽  
Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Programmed Death ◽  
Recurrent Squamous Cell Carcinoma

The immune system plays a key role in the development and progression of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Understanding the dysregulation and blockage of the immune system of malignant tumors in this location can improve treatment outcomes. A special group is made up of patients who have a widespread process and relapse after chemotherapy with platinum drugs, because they have a very poor prognosis and limitations in the possibilities of further treatment. To date, the most important data relate to drugs acting on the PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1)/PD-L1 (programmed death ligand 1) immune checkpoints, which are used by the tumor to block the immune system, which have allowed to increase the effectiveness of treatment. The article presents a clinical case demonstrating the effectiveness of the use of checkpoint inhibitors after the use of platinum preparations.

scholarly journals Tumor microenvironment and immune evasion in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Areeg Elmusrati ◽  
Justin Wang ◽  
Cun-Yu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
High Morbidity ◽  
Advanced Therapies

AbstractHead and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), an aggressive malignancy, is characterized by high morbidity and low survival rates with limited therapeutic options outside of regional surgery, conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy, and irradiation. Increasing studies have supported the synergistic role of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in cancer advancement. The immune system, in particular, plays a key role in surveillance against the initiation, development, and progression of HNSCC. The understanding of how neoplastic cells evolve and evade the immune system whether through self-immunogenicity manipulation, or expression of immunosuppressive mediators, provides the foundation for the development of advanced therapies. Furthermore, the crosstalk between cancer cells and the host immune system have a detrimental effect on the TME promoting angiogenesis, proliferation, and metastasis. This review provides a recent insight into the role of the key inflammatory cells infiltrating the TME, with a focus on reviewing immunological principles related to HNSCC, as cancer immunosurveillance and immune escape, including a brief overview of current immunotherapeutic strategies and ongoing clinical trials.

scholarly journals Neoadjuvant immunotherapy in resectable head and neck cancer: oral cavity carcinoma as a potential research model

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 175883592098406
Author(s):  
Vanesa Gutiérrez Calderón ◽  
Alexandra Cantero González ◽  
Laura Gálvez Carvajal ◽  
Yolanda Aguilar Lizarralde ◽  
Antonio Rueda Domínguez
Keyword(s):  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Oral Cavity ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Surgical Resection ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Immune Checkpoint ◽  
Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Research Model

Squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity (OCSCC) accounts for approximately 25% of cases of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Tobacco and alcohol consumption are the main risk factors for both cancers. Surgical resection, combined with adjuvant radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy in patients with high risk of relapse, is the key element in management in the initial stages. However, despite the availability of aggressive multidisciplinary treatments, advanced resectable OCSCC carries poor prognosis; only half of the patients are disease-free 5 years after the surgery. Immunotherapy based on the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors has been proven to be effective in a wide variety of tumours, including recurrent and metastatic HNSCC. These positive results resulted in investigations into its effectiveness in earlier stages of the disease with OCSCC emerging as an interesting research model because of the accessible location of the tumours. This article reviews the potential advantages of emerging immunotherapeutic agents [mainly monoclonal antibodies against programmed cell death-1 ( PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitors] as neoadjuvant treatment for OCSCC at locoregional stages as well as the ongoing clinical trials, challenges in evaluating tumour response, and possible predictive biomarkers of response with highlights regarding the role of oral microbiota as modulators of immune response. The efficacy and safety of anti- PD-1 drugs in these patients have been proven in preliminary trials. If there is a decrease in the relapse rate and an improvement in the overall survival after surgical resection in ongoing trials, preoperative immunotherapy may be established as a treatment option for patients with early stages of the disease.

scholarly journals PD-L1 Testing and Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck: A Multicenter Study on the Diagnostic Reproducibility of Different Protocols

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 292
Author(s):  
Simona Crosta ◽  
Renzo Boldorini ◽  
Francesca Bono ◽  
Virginia Brambilla ◽  
Emanuele Dainese ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Interobserver Reliability ◽  
Tissue Microarrays ◽  
Observer Agreement ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Observer Reliability

Immune checkpoint inhibitors for blocking the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) axis are now available for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) in relapsing and/or metastatic settings. In this work, we compared the resulting combined positive score (CPS) of PD-L1 using alternative methods adopted in routine clinical practice and determined the level of diagnostic agreement and inter-observer reliability in this setting. The study applied 5 different protocols on 40 tissue microarrays from HNSCC. The error rate of the individual protocols ranged from a minimum of 7% to a maximum of 21%, the sensitivity from 79% to 96%, and the specificity from 50% to 100%. In the intermediate group (1 ≤ CPS < 20), the majority of errors consisted of an underestimation of PD-L1 expression. In strong expressors, 5 out of 14 samples (36%) were correctly evaluated by all the protocols, but no protocol was able to correctly identify all the “strong expressors”. The overall inter-observer agreement in PD-L1 CPS reached 87%. The inter-observer reliability was moderate, with an ICC of 0.774 (95% CI (0.651; 0.871)). In conclusion, our study showed moderate interobserver reliability among different protocols. In order to improve the performances, adequate specific training to evaluate PD-L1 by CPS in the HNSCC setting should be coordinated.

scholarly journals Transcriptomic Correlates of Immunologic Activation in Head and Neck and Cervical Cancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Saiz-Ladera ◽  
Mariona Baliu-Piqué ◽  
Francisco J. Cimas ◽  
Aránzazu Manzano ◽  
Vanesa García-Barberán ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Immune Effector ◽  
Effector Cells ◽  
Favorable Prognosis ◽  
Immune Effector Cells ◽  
Tumor Types

Targeting the immune system has emerged as an effective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of various tumor types, including Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) and Non-small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), and checkpoint inhibitors have shown to improve patient survival in these tumor types. Unfortunately, not all cancers respond to these agents, making it necessary to identify responsive tumors. Several biomarkers of response have been described and clinically tested. As of yet what seems to be clear is that a pre-activation state of the immune system is necessary for these agents to be efficient. In this study, using established transcriptomic signatures, we identified a group of gene combination associated with favorable outcome in HNSCC linked to a higher presence of immune effector cells. CD2, CD3D, CD3E, and CXCR6 combined gene expression is associated with improved outcome of HNSCC patients and an increase of infiltrating immune effector cells. This new signature also identifies a subset of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) patients with favorable prognosis, who show an increased presence of immune effector cells in the tumor, which outcome shows similarities with the HP-positive HNSCC cohort of patients. In addition, CD2, CD3D, CD3E, and CXCR6 signature is able to predict the best favorable prognosis in terms of overall survival of CSSC patients. Of note, these findings were not reproduced in other squamous cell carcinomas like esophageal SCC or lung SCC. Prospective confirmatory studies should be employed to validate these findings.

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