In 2019, the FDA approved pembrolizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting PD-1, for the first-line treatment of recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancers, despite only a limited number of patients benefiting from the treatment. Promising effects of therapeutic vaccination led the FDA to approve the use of the first therapeutic vaccine in prostate cancer in 2010. Research in the field of therapeutic vaccination, including possible synergistic effects with anti-PD(L)1 treatments, is evolving each year, and many vaccines are in pre-clinical and clinical studies. The aim of this review article is to discuss vaccines as a new therapeutic strategy, particularly in the field of head and neck cancers. Different vaccination technologies are discussed, as well as the results of the first clinical trials in HPV-positive, HPV-negative, and EBV-induced head and neck cancers.
Keywords: Epstein–Barr virus; head and neck; human papillomavirus; immunotherapy; squamous cell carcinoma; undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma; vaccine.