Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck

Functional experiments in LSCC cell lines showed that reducing HMGA2 levels inhibited cell growth, invasion, and migration. This study provides a comprehensive characterization of m6A-related senescence signatures and highlights HMGA2 as a potential therapeutic target in LSCC.

P1/2, N=50, Active, not recruiting, University of Cincinnati | Trial completion date: Sep 2025 --> Sep 2026

These findings suggest that rapamycin enhances the mechanistic efficacy of cisplatin by specifically targeting and reducing cisplatin-induced stemness (CD133+ CSC population). This study proposes a viable combination therapy for HNSCC involving an mTOR inhibitor and a platinum-based drug to overcome CSC-mediated resistance.

P=N/A, N=105, Recruiting, University Health Network, Toronto | Trial completion date: Feb 2026 --> Feb 2027 | Trial primary completion date: Feb 2026 --> Feb 2027

P4, N=110, Not yet recruiting, Centre Antoine Lacassagne

Recent phase III data have led to approval of perioperative pembrolizumab for patients with PD-L1-positive (CPS ≥ 1)...In addition, potential strategies to optimize treatment efficacy and to overcome resistance mechanisms of CPI therapy are discussed. Further trials are needed to define optimal treatment protocols, determinate the best timing of surgery, and identify reliable biomarkers for patient selection, to guide evidence-based therapeutic decision-making in routine clinical practice.

In vivo studies have shown that knockdown of SOX4 or administration of erlotinib significantly inhibited tumor growth and reduced the rate of lymph node metastasis. SOX4 promotes the growth and lymph node metastasis of LSCC by regulating PTBP2. The SOX4-PTBP2 axis may become a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target for LSCC.

In conclusion, through the integration of bioinformatics analyses and machine learning algorithms, we developed CDCSI as a robust and reliable signature for predicting prognosis, characterizing molecular features, and evaluating potential responses to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy in HNSCC. These findings suggested that CDCSI may provide an exploratory framework for individualized risk stratification and hypothesis generation regarding therapeutic response in HNSCC, but prospective clinical validation is required before clinical application.

Radiomic models can noninvasively predict the expression of ICOS, which influences the prognosis of HNSCC patients.

These results suggest that the serum levels of CD73 may not be a useful biomarker for the recognition of the clinical behavior of head and neck SCC. However, the actual role of CD73 in SCC remains unclear and requires further research.

and Akkermansia muciniphila), or selective antibiotics - can restore antitumor immunity, enhance ICI efficacy, and minimize broad dysbiosis risks. Integrating intratumoral microbial profiling into HNSCC and NSCLC clinical trials could refine patient stratification, uncover predictive biomarkers, and accelerate microbiome-directed adjunct therapies, advancing precision oncology and expanding immunotherapy benefits.

In conclusion, our study reveals that ADE induces ferroptosis in HNSCC via the EGR1-ACSL4 axis. This finding highlights the potential of ADE as a therapeutic agent, and provides a mechanistic foundation for its future clinical applications in HNSCC.