Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Viale Regina Elena 326, 00161, Rome, Italy.
Radiological, Oncological and Pathological Science Department "Sapienza", University of Rome, Policlinico Umberto I, Viale Regina Elena 326, 00161, Rome, Italy.
Crit Rev Oncol Hematol. 2020 Sep;153:103041. doi: 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2020.103041. Epub 2020 Jun 30.
The immune checkpoint inhibitors, a class of drugs able to block immune suppressive pathways in order to prime an anticancer immunity, revolutionized standard of care in platinum-refractory recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck carcinoma (R/M HNSCC). The PD-1/ PD-L1 axis is involved in the genesis, maintenance and progression of HNSCC and represents the target of checkpoint inhibitors. HNSCC is an immunosuppressive disease with a high inflammatory component in tumor microenvironment. Recent clinical trials showed that only a small subset of patients really benefits from immunotherapy. This review aims to highlight the five W-points of immunotherapy: why immunotherapy is promising in HNSCC, what is currently available in daily clinical practice, when immunotherapy can be integrated into the therapeutic strategy, where it can be useful according to predictive response biomarker, who, among patients, could get the best benefit from immunotherapy and how improve the achieved results.
免疫检查点抑制剂是一类能够阻断免疫抑制途径的药物，以引发抗肿瘤免疫，从而彻底改变了铂类难治性复发性和/或转移性头颈部癌（R/M HNSCC）的治疗标准。PD-1/PD-L1 轴参与了 HNSCC 的发生、维持和进展，是检查点抑制剂的靶点。HNSCC 是一种免疫抑制性疾病，肿瘤微环境中有很高的炎症成分。最近的临床试验表明，只有一小部分患者真正从免疫治疗中受益。这篇综述旨在强调免疫治疗的五个要点：为什么免疫治疗在 HNSCC 中很有前途，目前在日常临床实践中有哪些治疗方法，何时可以将免疫治疗纳入治疗策略，根据预测反应生物标志物，免疫治疗在哪里有用，哪些患者可能从中受益最大，以及如何提高治疗效果。
