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Recent Advances in Head and Neck Tumor Microenvironment–Based Therapy

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Tumor Microenvironments in Organs

Abstract

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are a group of heterogeneous aggressive tumors affecting more than half a million patients worldwide annually. While the tobacco- and alcohol-associated HNSCC tumors are declining, human papillomavirus (HPV)-induced tumors are on rise. Despite recent advances in multimodality therapeutic interventions including surgery in combination with chemoradiation therapy (CRT), the overall 5-year survival has not improved more than 50%. The underlying reasons for this dismal prognosis is the intrinsic or acquired resistance to CRT. While previous studies were focused to target tumor cells, recent findings have implicated the involvement of tumor microenvironment (TME) on tumor progression and response to therapy. HNSCC TME includes cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), endothelial cells, immune cells, endocrine cells, and the extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins including collagen and fibronectin. Understanding the crosstalk between TME and cancer cells is important to formulate more effective novel therapies and to overcome resistance mechanisms. Here, we summarized the current literature on recent advances on HNSCC TME with special emphasis on novel cell–cell interactions and therapies currently under development.

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Abbreviations

CAF :

Cancer-associated fibroblasts

CSF-1 :

Colony-stimulating factor-1

DC :

Dendritic cell

ECM :

Extracellular matrix

EGF :

Epidermal growth factor

Fas-L :

Fas ligand

FGF :

Fibroblast growth factor

FoxP3 :

Forked/winghead transcription factor

G-CSF :

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor

GM-CSF :

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor

HGF :

Hepatocyte growth factor

HNSCC :

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

IL :

Interleukin

MDSC :

Myeloid-derived suppressor cell

MMP :

Matrix metallo protein

NK :

Natural killer cell

ORR :

Overall response rate

OS :

Overall survival

PD-1 :

Programmed death-1

PDGF :

Platelet-derived growth factor

PD-L1 :

Programmed death ligand-1

PFS :

Progression free survival

PGE :

Prostaglandin

RNS :

Reactive nitrogen species

ROS :

Reactive oxygen species

TAM :

Tumor-associated macrophage

TCR :

T cell receptor

TGF :

Transforming growth factor

TME :

Tumor microenvironment

TNF-α :

Tumor necrosis factor-α

VEGF :

Vascular endothelial growth factor

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Acknowledgment

Muzafar A. Macha is a recipient of Ramanujan Fellowship from Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi.Mohammad Haris is supported by PI grant from Sidra Medicine (5071012001) and Ajaz A. Bhat is supported by Sidra Medicine Internal Research Fund (5011041002). 

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Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi.

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Macha, M.A. et al. (2020). Recent Advances in Head and Neck Tumor Microenvironment–Based Therapy. In: Birbrair, A. (eds) Tumor Microenvironments in Organs. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1296. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59038-3_2

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