Park JC, Krishnakumar HN, Saladi SV. Current and Future Biomarkers for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
Curr Oncol 2022;
29:4185-4198. [PMID:
35735443 PMCID:
PMC9221564 DOI:
10.3390/curroncol29060334]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2022] [Revised: 06/02/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
With the introduction of immunotherapy, significant improvement has been made in the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, only a small subset of patients with HNSCC benefit from immunotherapy. The current biomarker, a programmed cell death protein ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression that is widely used in treatment decision making for advanced HNSCC, has only a moderate predictive value. Additionally, PD-L1-based assay has critical inherent limitations due to its highly dynamic nature and lack of standardization. With the advance in molecular techniques and our understanding of biology, more reliable, reproducible, and practical novel biomarkers are being developed. These include but are not limited to neoantigen/mutation characteristics, immune transcriptomes, tumor-infiltrating immune cell composition, cancer epigenomic, proteomics and metabolic characteristics, and plasma-based and organoid assays.
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