title: Overcoming barriers to effective immunotherapy: MDSCs, TAMs, and Tregs as mediators of the immunosuppressive microenvironment in head and neck cancer.
abstract: A significant subset of head and neck cancers display a T-cell inflamed phenotype, suggesting that patients with these tumors should respond to therapeutic approaches aimed at strengthening anti-tumor immune responses. A major barrier to the development of an effective anti-tumor immune response, at baseline or in response to immunotherapy, is the development of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Several well described mechanisms of effector immune cell suppression in the head and neck cancer microenvironment are discussed here, along with updates on current trials designed to translate what we have learned from pre-clinical and correlative clinical studies into improved responses in patients with head and neck cancer following immune activating therapies.
authors.affiliation: Tumor Biology Section, Head and Neck Surgery Branch, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
authors.forename: Ruth J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Tumor Biology Section, Head and Neck Surgery Branch, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
authors.forename: Carter
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Waes
authors.affiliation: Tumor Biology Section, Head and Neck Surgery Branch, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States; Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States. Electronic address: clint.allen@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Clint T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Allen
mesh_terms: D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology*; D000072737:Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
keywords: Antigenicity; Immunity; Immunogenicity; Immunotherapy