Taxanes in the Treatment of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Taxanes, particularly docetaxel (DTX), has been widely used for combination therapy of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). For locally advanced unresectable HNSCC, DTX combined with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil as a revolutionary treatment revealed an advantage in the improvement of patient outcome. In addition, DTX plus immune check inhibitors (ICIs) showed low toxicity and an increased response of patients with recurrent or metastatic HNSCC (R/M HNSCC). Accumulated data indicate that taxanes not only function as antimitotics but also impair diverse oncogenic signalings, including angiogenesis, inflammatory response, ROS production, and apoptosis induction. However, despite an initial response, the development of resistance remains a major obstacle to treatment response. Taxane resistance could result from intrinsic mechanisms, such as enhanced DNA/RNA damage repair, increased drug efflux, and apoptosis inhibition, and extrinsic effects, such as angiogenesis and interactions between tumor cells and immune cells. This review provides an overview of taxanes therapy applied in different stages of HNSCC and describe the mechanisms of taxane resistance in HNSCC. Through a detailed understanding, the mechanisms of resistance may help in developing the potential therapeutic methods and the effective combination strategies to overcome drug resistance.

Anticancer Effect by Combined Treatment of Artemisia annua L. Polyphenols and Docetaxel in DU145 Prostate Cancer Cells and HCT116 Colorectal Cancer Cells

“…Paclitaxel (PTX), a phytochemical extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, belongs to microtubule-stabilizing agents that promote the polymerization of tubulin and prevent microtubule depolymerization, leading to the suppression of microtubule dynamics [1][2][3]. Docetaxel (DTX), a semi-synthetic analogue of PTX, also belongs to microtubule-stabilizing agents and is widely used as a chemotherapy drug to suppress various types of cancer, including castration-resistant prostate cancer, breast cancer, head and neck cancer, stomach cancer, and non-small-cell lung cancer [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Like PTX, DTX suppresses microtubule dynamics, induces cell cycle arrest in the G2-M phase, inhibits cell division, and induces apoptotic cell death [3,10].…”