Oualla Karima, Castelo Branco Luis, Nouiyakh Lamiae, Amaadour Lamiae, Benbrahim Zineb, Arifi Samia, Mellas Nawfel
Medical Oncology Department, 470521Hassn II University Hospital, University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fes, Morocco.
Clinical Oncology Algarve Medical and University Centre Faro, Faro, Portugal.
Cancer Control. 2021 Jan-Dec;28:10732748211004878. doi: 10.1177/10732748211004878.
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a potential curative disease at its localized stage, by the use of multimodal treatment including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. While the metastatic stage is considered incurable and is characterized by poor prognosis. Conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy in addition to cetuximab were the only available systemic treatment with limited efficacy and modest median overall survival barely crossing the 1 year limit. Immunotherapy with PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors has revolutionized the treatment of multiple cancers. Recently, Immunotherapy is being extensively explored in head and neck cancer and clinical trials have shown impressive results that allowed to immune check point inhibitors to be the new standard of care. In this article we tried to explain the rationale and mechanisms of targeting the immune system in head and neck carcinoma and to report the results from the phase III clinical trials that put the immunotherapy as a new standard of care for head and neck cancer.
头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）在局部阶段是一种有可能治愈的疾病，可通过手术、放疗和化疗等多模式治疗方法实现。而转移阶段则被认为无法治愈，其特点是预后较差。除西妥昔单抗外的传统细胞毒性化疗是唯一可用的全身治疗方法，疗效有限，中位总生存期仅略超过1年。PD-1和PD-L1抑制剂免疫疗法彻底改变了多种癌症的治疗方式。最近，免疫疗法在头颈癌治疗中得到了广泛探索，临床试验已显示出令人瞩目的结果，使免疫检查点抑制剂成为新的治疗标准。在本文中，我们试图解释在头颈部癌中靶向免疫系统的基本原理和机制，并报告III期临床试验的结果，这些结果将免疫疗法确立为头颈部癌的新治疗标准。
