Combined immunotargeted therapy as an effective treatment of platinoresistent recurrent / metastatic squamous cell head and neck cancer

Treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma remains a global oncological problem.This pathologyis the 7thmost common oncological disease in the world. According to the Cancer Statistics 2024 global registry, more than 900,000 new cases of this disease and approximately 450,000 associated deaths are registered annually which highlights tumor aggressiveness and treatment difficulty. Despite the successes in diagnosis of malignant tumors, in more than 80 % of patients head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is diagnosed at stages III–IV because of non-specific disease symptoms at stages I–II. Traditional treatment methods (surgical intervention, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy) often allow to achieve complete recovery in patients with early-stage disease. However, in the majority of tumor recurrences, efficacy of these approaches is limited, and their use is associated with significant adverse events. Considering the high rate of progression of recurrence platinum-refractory head and neck squamous cell carcinoma after standard antitumor regimens, the search for new, more effective approaches to treatment remain necessary. The article presents our own clinical experience of successful treatment of patients with recurrent platinum-refractory head and neck squamous cell carcinoma using combination immunotherapy and targeted therapy with cetuximab and anti-PD-1 inhibitor (PD-1 – programmed cell death receptor 1).