Immune Checkpoints Pathways in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a heterogeneous group of tumors usually diagnosed at an advanced stage and characterized by a poor prognosis. The main risk factors associated with its development include tobacco and alcohol consumption and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infections. The immune system has a significant role in the oncogenesis and evolution of this cancer type. Notably, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment triggers immune escape through several mechanisms. The improved understanding of the antitumor immune response in solid tumors and the role of the immune checkpoint molecules and other immune regulators have led to the development of novel therapeutic strategies that revolutionized the clinical management of HNSCC. However, the limited overall response rate to immunotherapy urges identifying predictive biomarkers of response and resistance to treatment. Here, we review the role of the immune system and immune checkpoint pathways in HNSCC, the most relevant clinical findings linked to immunotherapeutic strategies and predictive biomarkers of response and future treatment perspectives.

Implications of Human Antimicrobial Peptide Defensin Beta-1 in Clinical Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients via an Integrated Bioinformatics Approach

“…Immune Checkpoint Genes (ICGs). The 15 immune checkpoint genes (ICGs) were selected from a systematic review of ICGs in cancer [18,19], including CD274, CTLA4, LAG3, HAVCR2, TIGIT, VSIR, CD276, VTCN1, BTLA, IDO1, CD70, CD40, CD47, TNFRSF18, and TNFSF14. The correlation between DEFB1 expression and any one ICG's expression in OSCC was evaluated by using the Pearson statistical method.…”

Roles of HMGBs in Prognosis and Immunotherapy: A Pan-Cancer Analysis

“…TMB represents the total number of mutations per DNA megabase (Duffy and Crown, 2019). High MSI is an underlying process contributing to high TMB, and higher MSI or TMB levels may generate potent neoantigens for recognition by immune surveillance, thus increasing immunotherapy responses (Duffy and Crown, 2019;Veigas et al, 2021). We found that HMGBs were significantly positively correlated with MSI and (or) TMB in diverse cancers, suggesting that high HMGB expression might predict clinical benefits from immunotherapy for patients with these cancers.…”

Systemic Analysis on the Features of Immune Microenvironment Related to Prognostic Signature in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Therefore, the C1 subtype may be a stroma-deficient type, which may be more efficient for the immune response than the C3 subtype. Therefore, the immune-enhanced subtype might co-exist with the relative immune-decreased subtype within the TIME of HNSCC, and there were significant differences in the expression profiles of metagenes, immune infiltration scores, immune component scores, as well as immune-associated pathways ( Veigas et al, 2021 ).…”