[Special tumor entities in the head and neck region : Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, salivary gland, and thyroid cancer]. / Spezielle Tumorentitäten im Kopf-Hals-Bereich : Nasopharynxkarzinom, Speicheldrüsenkarzinom und Schilddrüsenkarzinom.

BACKGROUND: In recent years the number of studies on special tumor entities in the head and neck region has increased. During the 2021 meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASMO) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), several studies were presented which predict changes in clinical treatment algorithms for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, salivary gland, and thyroid cancer. OBJECTIVE: Future treatment alterations in specific head and neck tumor entities were evaluated after screening clinical studies presented at the 2021 ASCO and ESMO meetings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic analysis of the phase II and III clinical trials for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, salivary gland, and thyroid cancer treatment presented at ASCO and ESMO 2021 was performed. Taking into account current treatment standards, the results are structured in terms of their potential clinical significance. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In curative treatment of advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, adjuvant therapy with capecitabine after primary chemoradiation should be discussed as a new standard. In the palliative treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, an increasing role of immunotherapy can be predicted. Recurrent or metastatic salivary gland cancer can often be treated very effectively with targeted substances if molecular target lesions are present. Immunotherapies currently play a subordinate role; they only seem to be effective in a few patients with salivary gland cancer, who cannot currently be reliably identified using predictive markers. Patients with radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer benefit from treatment with the multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor cabozantinib after failure of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (VEGFR-TKI) therapy.

Phase III study of nivolumab alone or combined with ipilimumab as immunotherapy versus standard of care in resectable head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (LA-HNSCC) often requires postoperative chemoradiation with high risk of toxicity. Disease-free survival (DFS) after 2 years is approximately 70%. Combining nivolumab (N), a PD-1-inhibitor and ipilimumab (I), a CTLA4- inhibitor, may improve DFS due to antitumor effects of immunotherapy. The IMSTAR-HN study compares neoadjuvant N and N ± I 6 months after adjuvant therapy versus standard therapy as first-line treatment for LA-HNSCC. Eligible patients have treatment-naive LA-HNSCC, Eastern cooperative oncology group performance score (PS) ≤1 and no distant metastasis. 276 patients will be randomized into two arms. Primary endpoint is DFS and secondary endpoint includes locoregional control (LRC) and overall survival (OS). This study is one of the first in HNSCCs implementing immunotherapy in first-line treatment in a curative setting. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT03700905 (ClinicalTrials.gov).