Artificial Intelligence for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: From Diagnosis to Treatment

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains a globally prevalent malignancy with high morbidity and mortality. Despite therapeutic advances, patient outcomes are hindered by tumor heterogeneity, treatment-related toxicity, and the limitations of traditional prognostic tools. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers the opportunity to improve personalized HNSCC management by integrating complex radiologic, pathologic, and molecular data into actionable information insights. This review synthesizes recent developments in AI applications across the HNSCC care continuum, from diagnosis through treatment planning, emphasizing their clinical relevance and translational potential. AI has shown promise in enhancing diagnostic accuracy through automated tumor burden assessment, extranodal extension prediction, and endoscopic image analysis. Deep learning applied to radiology and digital pathology enables the extraction of prognostic features that may inform risk stratification and treatment de-escalation, particularly in human papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma. Multimodal AI models that fuse imaging, histopathology, and electronic health records have demonstrated superior performance in predicting survival outcomes compared with unimodal approaches. Additional applications include early toxicity detection during radiotherapy, adaptive treatment planning, and surgical complication forecasting. AI also holds potential in predicting immunotherapy response by identifying imaging and histologic correlates of tumor immunogenicity. Barriers to clinical translation remain, and continued development of explainable models, prospective trials, and seamless integration into clinical workflows will be critical for broad adoption. AI has already begun to affect HNSCC radiotherapy and surgical planning, and with thoughtful implementation, it may enable safer, more personalized care across the HNSCC treatment landscape.