Case report: The impact of dissociated response of immunotherapy on the treatment strategy of advanced head and neck cancer

Front Immunol. 2024 Oct 15:15:1460480. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1460480. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Some special therapeutic responses may appear during immunotherapy, such as hyperprogression, pseudoprogression and so on. Dissociated response of immunotherapy has been clinically reported in recent years mainly in lung cancer and kidney cancer. Since there were poor prognosis and simple treatment of advanced head and neck cancer, the application of immunotherapy in head and neck cancer has risen in recent years. But the dissociated response of immunotherapy in head and neck cancer is rarely reported. We reported two series of cases of advanced head and neck cancer that showed dissociated response after immunotherapy, tumor progression was assessed by imaging methods such as PET-CT, enhanced CT and enhanced MR, and reviewed the literature related to dissociated response in immunotherapy. We propose that the dissociated response of immunotherapy may affect the treatment strategy of advanced head and neck cancer, but more clinical analyses and researches are needed to confirm it.

Keywords: advanced head and neck cancer; conversion therapy; dissociated response; immunotherapy; treatment strategy.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Disease Progression
  • Female
  • Head and Neck Neoplasms* / immunology
  • Head and Neck Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Humans
  • Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors / therapeutic use
  • Immunotherapy* / methods
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography
  • Treatment Outcome

Substances

  • Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Hunan Cancer Hospital Qihang Youth Fund Project (QH2021007).