Immune biomarkers of response to immune-checkpoint inhibitors in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) agents have become the standard of care for platinum-refractory recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and are currently being evaluated in various disease settings. However, despite the gain in overall survival seen in some of the clinical trials, the majority of patients display primary resistance and do not benefit from these agents. Taking into consideration the potentially severe immune-related toxicities and their high cost, the search for predictive biomarkers of response is crucial. Besides Programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression, other biomarkers such as immune infiltration, tumor mutational burden or immune-gene expression profiling have been explored, but none of them has been validated in this disease.

SUBMITTER: Oliva M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6336003 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature