Impact of comorbidities on outcomes in patients with advanced head and neck cancer undergoing immunotherapy
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Updated: Jul 17, 2025

Analysis of Human T Cell Activity in an Allogeneic Co-Culture Setting of Pre-Treated Tumor Cells
Published on: March 7, 2025
Meytal Guller1,2,3,4, Dylan J Cooper1,2, Hosam Alkhatib4
1Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, New York, USA.
Objectives:
To explore the impact of pre-existing comorbidities on immunotherapy response, overall and progression-free survival, and immune-related adverse events (irAEs) of patients with advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) treated with immunotherapy.
Patients And Methods:
Ninety-three patients treated with immunotherapy were identified and stratified into comorbidity absent or present (CCI < 1 and CCI ≥ 1, respectively) cohorts, and clinical outcomes were compared between these two groups.
Results:
Patients with no comorbidities had longer overall survival (aHR = 2.74, 95% CI [1.18, 6.40], p = 0.02) and progression-free survival (aHR = 2.07, 95% CI [1.03, 4.16], p = 0.04) and a higher tumor response rate (32% in CCI < 1 vs. 14% in CC ≥ 1, p = 0.05). Risk for irAEs was higher in the comorbidity absent group (p = 0.05).
Conclusion:
Comorbidity should be considered as a significant prognostic factor in clinical decision-making for patients with advanced HNC undergoing immunotherapy.
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