The head and neck cancer immune landscape and its immunotherapeutic implications

TLDR

Recent trials show a survival benefit for advanced HNSCC patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade, positioning HNSCC as a promising immunotherapy frontier, yet detailed knowledge of its tumor immune infiltrate is needed. The study aims to characterize the HNSCC immune landscape using TCGA transcriptomes to inform immunotherapeutic strategies and guide clinical research. The authors analyzed transcriptome data from 280 TCGA HNSCC tumors to map immune cell infiltration and identify therapeutic targets. The analysis revealed distinct immune infiltration patterns in HPV‑positive versus HPV‑negative HNSCC tumors.

Abstract

Recent clinical trials have demonstrated a clear survival advantage in advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade. These emerging results reveal that HNSCC is one of the most promising frontiers for immunotherapy research. However, further progress in head and neck immuno-oncology will require a detailed understanding of the immune infiltrative landscape found in these tumors. We leveraged transcriptome data from 280 tumors profiled by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to comprehensively characterize the immune landscape of HNSCC in order to develop a rationale for immunotherapeutic strategies in HNSCC and guide clinical investigation. We find that both HPV