[Immunotherapy for HNSCC : Quo vadis?].

BACKGROUND: Immunotherapy remains a hot topic with an endless stream of new upcoming clinical trials. The results of studies to date are promising for second-line palliative treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The next step is testing these strategies in randomized trials for first-line and curative treatment in an adjuvant, neoadjuvant, and primarily nonsurgical setting. So far, established biomarkers have not proven reliable enough to predict response rates precisely.

OBJECTIVES: On occasion of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), we aimed to invesitage the future of immunotherapies.

METHODS: We collected the most promising upcoming studies alongside current research in the field of biomarkers with a  view to interesting new immunotherapeutic strategies.

RESULTS: The search for appropriate biomarkers in particular seems to be a central research objective in the short term. There is a broad range of new agents that will be tested in clinical trials as well as the combination of immunotherapy with chemo- and chemoradiotherapy or other immune-modulating drugs.

CONCLUSION: The real challenge will be to find the most fitting therapy for each patient out of a large panel of available regimens. Therefore, it is most important to find a set of reliable biomarkers that together could predict treatment response.