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Review
. 2023 Oct 25;11(11):2887.
doi: 10.3390/biomedicines11112887.

Taxanes in the Treatment of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Ching-Yun Hsieh  1 , Ching-Chan Lin  1 , Wei-Chao Chang  2
Affiliations
Review

Taxanes in the Treatment of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Ching-Yun Hsieh et al. Biomedicines. .

Abstract

Taxanes, particularly docetaxel (DTX), has been widely used for combination therapy of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). For locally advanced unresectable HNSCC, DTX combined with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil as a revolutionary treatment revealed an advantage in the improvement of patient outcome. In addition, DTX plus immune check inhibitors (ICIs) showed low toxicity and an increased response of patients with recurrent or metastatic HNSCC (R/M HNSCC). Accumulated data indicate that taxanes not only function as antimitotics but also impair diverse oncogenic signalings, including angiogenesis, inflammatory response, ROS production, and apoptosis induction. However, despite an initial response, the development of resistance remains a major obstacle to treatment response. Taxane resistance could result from intrinsic mechanisms, such as enhanced DNA/RNA damage repair, increased drug efflux, and apoptosis inhibition, and extrinsic effects, such as angiogenesis and interactions between tumor cells and immune cells. This review provides an overview of taxanes therapy applied in different stages of HNSCC and describe the mechanisms of taxane resistance in HNSCC. Through a detailed understanding, the mechanisms of resistance may help in developing the potential therapeutic methods and the effective combination strategies to overcome drug resistance.

Keywords: docetaxel (DTX); head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC); resistance; taxanes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structures of taxanes used in clinical settings (upper panel) and oral taxanes currently under development (lower panel).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic representation of the major mechanisms of taxanes involved in inducing tumor cell death.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Resistant mechanisms of taxanes in HNSCC.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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