Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: new translational therapies

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma includes cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, and lymph nodes of the neck. Although early disease is amenable to single-modality treatment with surgery or radiation, patients with advanced disease have a dramatically worse prognosis, despite potentially morbid/toxic treatment regimens involving surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or all 3 modalities. The present review seeks to provide an overview of current understanding and treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma for the nonspecialist clinician or basic/translational researcher, followed by an overview of major translational approaches to the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Translational research topics addressed include targeted molecular therapy, immunotherapy, minimally invasive robotic surgery, and ablation of dormant/residual tumor cells. Despite the many potentially promising avenues of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma research, only 2 new treatment approaches (antiepidermal growth factor receptor therapy and robotic surgery) have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in the past 30 years. Focused research programs involving integrated teams of clinicians, basic scientists, and translational clinician-researchers have the potential to accelerate discovery and change treatment paradigms for patients with head and neck cancer.