Current progress in immunotherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is one of the highly prevalent malignant tumors and the most common type of ear, nose, and throat cancer. The exact cause of various cancer is still unclear; however, a diversity of risk factors for the development of nasopharyngeal cancer have been reported, including genetic changes, viral infection, and environmental factors, among which, Epstein-Barr-Virus plays an important role in the oncogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is highly malignant and prone to metastasis, while most of them are moderately sensitive to radiation therapy; hence, radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy is currently the standard treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. However, this combination therapy tends to cause more complications and tumor recurrence, which not only increases the financial burden to patients, but also adversely affects their physical and mental health. In recent years, immunotherapy has been emerging as a new strategy to treat malignant tumors including nasopharyngeal carcinoma and has achieved favorable results. The immunotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma can control or even eliminate tumor cells by inducing and enhancing the collective immune function. Currently, the main immunotherapeutic approaches for nasopharyngeal carcinoma include successive immune cell therapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and tumor vaccines. However, the efficacy of immunotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma still require improvement. In this review, we summarized the current progress and efficacy of immunotherapy, particularly by targeting EVB, in the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.