title: Surveilling the Potential for Precision Medicine-driven PD-1/PD-L1-targeted Therapy in HNSCC.
abstract: Immunotherapy is becoming an accepted treatment modality for many patients with cancer and is now approved for use in platinum-refractory recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Despite these successes, a minority of patients with HNSCC receiving immunotherapy respond to treatment, and few undergo a complete response. Thus, there is a critical need to identify mechanisms regulating immune checkpoints in HNSCC such that one can predict who will benefit, and so novel combination strategies can be developed for non-responders. Here, we review the immunotherapy and molecular genetics literature to describe what is known about immune checkpoints in common genetic subsets of HNSCC. We highlight several highly recurrent genetic lesions that may serve as biomarkers or targets for combination immunotherapy in HNSCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.; Department of Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hoesli
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.; Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: N L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Michmerhuizen
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.; Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Devenport
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.; Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ludwig
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Vandenberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Matovina
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jawad
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.; Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mierzwa
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.; Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Shuman
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.; Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Spector
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.; Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Brenner
keywords: EGFR; Genetics; HNSCC.; Immunotherapy; personalized medicine