Treatment Stratification in First-Line Recurrent or Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer, on Behalf of the EORTC Young Investigator Head and Neck Cancer Group

Konrad Klinghammer; Luigi Lorini; Daan Nevens; Christian Simon; Jean-Pascal Machiels; Paolo Bossi

doi:10.3389/fonc.2022.730785

Treatment Stratification in First-Line Recurrent or Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer, on Behalf of the EORTC Young Investigator Head and Neck Cancer Group

Front Oncol. 2022 Jan 27:12:730785. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.730785. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Konrad Klinghammer^{1

2}, Luigi Lorini³, Daan Nevens⁴, Christian Simon⁵, Jean-Pascal Machiels⁶, Paolo Bossi³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology, Oncology and Cancer Immunology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.
² Charité Comprehensive Cancer Center, Berlin, Germany.
³ Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
⁴ Iridium Netwerk, Radiation Oncology Department, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
⁵ Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Lausanne, CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁶ Institut Roi Albert II, Department of Medical Oncology, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc and Institut de Recherche Clinique et Expérimentale (Pole MIRO), UC Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.

Abstract

Multiple factors differentially influence treatment decisions in the first line treatment of recurrent/metastatic HNSCC. The EORTC Young investigator group launched a survey among treating physicians to explore the main influencing factors for treatment stratification. The questionnaire was posted as a web-survey link from May to August 2020. Next to defining the factors that mostly influence therapeutic decision the survey was complemented by a clinical case discussion of five patient cases. A total of 118 responses from 19 countries were collected. The key factors identified to guide treatment decision were performance status, PD-L1 Expression, time from last systemic treatment above or below 6 months, and disease burden. Prospective evaluation of patient characteristics and additional potential predictive biomarkers for novel treatment options remains an important question to stratify personalized treatment for RM HNSCC.

Keywords: HNSCC; PD-L1 CPS; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; survey; treatment stratification.