Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Editorial
. 2019 Mar;7(Suppl 1):S22.
doi: 10.21037/atm.2019.01.72.

Immunotherapeutic strategies in patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Maysaloun Merhi  1   2 , Afsheen Raza  1   2 , Varghese Inchakalody  1   2 , Abdul Rahman Zar  1 , Shahab Uddin  3 , Said Dermime  1   2
Affiliations
Editorial

Immunotherapeutic strategies in patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Maysaloun Merhi et al. Ann Transl Med. 2019 Mar.
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The prevalence of somatic mutations across human cancer types. Figure reprinted by permission from Springer Nature: Nature. Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer. Alexandrov LB, Nik-Zainal S, Wedge DC, et al. August 14, 2013 (reference 10). Every dot represents a sample whereas the red horizontal lines are the median numbers of mutations in the respective cancer types. The vertical axis (log scaled) shows the number of mutations per megabase whereas the different cancer types are ordered on the horizontal axis based on their median numbers of somatic mutations. ALL, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia; AML, acute myeloid leukaemia; CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Potential immunotherapeutic strategies to treat metastatic/recurrent HNSCC. Suggested possible strategies to improve the immune response of these patients. In HPV and/or EBV-positive HNSCC tumors, new approaches targeting immunogenic viral antigens, as therapeutic vaccines as well as expansion of existing viral antigen-specific T cells (e.g., anti-LMP specific T cells) for adoptive transfer in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors blockade (anti-PD-1/PD-L-1 or anti-CTLA-4). HNSCC is associated with somatic mutations and therefore whole genome sequencing would allow prediction of mutated peptides and development of patients-personalized vaccines that can be used in combination with standard chemo/radiotherapy protocols. Specific tumor-associated neoantigens such as NY-ESO-1 and PD-L1 can also be used as immunotherapeutic targets. Clinical protocols should be developed to expand existing anti-NY-ESO1 or anti-PD-L1-specific T cells for adoptive transfer in combination with other immune checkpoint inhibitors blockade. HNSCC, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; HPV, human papilloma virus; EBV, Epstein-Barr virus; LMP, latent membrane protein; EBNA, EBV-induced nuclear antigen; PD-1, programmed cell death protein 1; PD-L1, programmed cell death protein 1 ligand; PBMCs, peripheral blood mononuclear cells; CTLA-4, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4; NY-ESO-1, New York esophageal squamous cell carcinoma 1; IL 4/7, interleukins 4 and 7; CTL, cytotoxic T lymphocytes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

    1. Rottey S, Madani I, Deron P, et al. Modern treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: current status and prospects. Curr Opin Oncol 2011;23:254-8. 10.1097/CCO.0b013e328344f527 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hoffmann TK, Bier H, Whiteside TL. Targeting the immune system: novel therapeutic approaches in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Cancer Immunol Immunother 2004;53:1055-67. 10.1007/s00262-004-0530-z - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Economopoulou P, Perisanidis C, Giotakis EI, et al. The emerging role of immunotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC): anti-tumor immunity and clinical applications. Ann Transl Med 2016;4:173. 10.21037/atm.2016.03.34 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Scanlan MJ, Simpson AJ, Old LJ. The cancer/testis genes: review, standardization, and commentary. Cancer Immun 2004;4:1. - PubMed
    1. Seiwert TY, Burtness B, Mehra R, et al. Safety and clinical activity of pembrolizumab for treatment of recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (KEYNOTE-012): an open-label, multicentre, phase 1b trial. Lancet Oncol 2016;17:956-65. 10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30066-3 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources