Background: The application of anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) therapies for recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has found promising results. It is the first "second-line therapy" in this setting to impact on prognosis. The studies demonstrated overall response rates in the range of 20%. Therefore, HNSCC showed 60%-80% progression at first evaluation with better overall survival, suggesting regained efficacy of treatments given thereafter.
Methods: We report three clinical cases treated with anti-PD-1 after platinum-based chemotherapy.
Results: Our case reports achieved an unforeseen response to conventional therapies supporting the hypothesis of restored responses to conventional therapies after immunotherapy.
Conclusions: We believe that the inhibition of the PD-1/PD-ligand 1 checkpoint may synergize with both chemotherapy or radiotherapy through immunologic interplay, reversing the HNSCC-induced immune suppression.
Keywords: anti-PD-1; nivolumab; recurrent or metastatic HNSCC; treatment beyond progression.
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.