Author/Editor		Plavc, Gaber; Jesenko, Tanja; Oražem, Miha; Strojan, Primož
Title		Challenges in combining immunotherapy with radiotherapy in recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer
Type		članek
Vol. and No.		, št. Vol. 12
Publication year		2020
Volume		str. [1-25]
ISSN		2072-6694 - Cancers
Language		eng
Abstract		Immunotherapy offers new hope for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer. However, only 20% of patients respond to this treatment. Combining radiotherapy in novel ways with immunotherapy can lead to synergistic effect by enabling cancer recognition by immune system and rendering tumor microenvironment less immunosuppressive. Based on a literature review, the main factors that need to be considered in future trials of immunoradiotherapy in head and neck cancer are discussed. The significance of proper timing of the treatment, the radiotherapy fractionation, patient selection, the number and the site of irradiated lesions, and the irradiated volume have been established in preclinical and clinical trials across different solid tumors. However, the trials using immunoradiotherapy in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer have shown poor results so far and the reasons for this are elaborated on.
Keywords		rak glave in vratu imunoterapija radioterapija head and neck cancer immunotherapy radiotherapy