Targeted therapy for head and neck cancer: signaling pathways and clinical studies

Head and neck cancer (HNC) is malignant, genetically complex and difficult to treat and is the sixth most frequent cancer, with tobacco, alcohol and human papillomavirus being major risk factors. Based on epigenetic data, HNC is remarkably heterogeneous, and treatment remains challenging. There is a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Signal transduction and targeted therapy 2023-01, Vol.8 (1), p.31-31, Article 31
Main Authors: Li, Qingfang, Tie, Yan, Alu, Aqu, Ma, Xuelei, Shi, Huashan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/67/1536
692/4028/67/1059
692/4028/67/1536
Animal models
Animals
Cancer Research
Cancer therapies
Cell Biology
Chemotherapy
Epigenetics
Head & neck cancer
Head and Neck Neoplasms - drug therapy
Head and Neck Neoplasms - genetics
Human papillomavirus
Humans
Immunotherapy
Internal Medicine
Medical prognosis
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Metastases
Oncology
Pathology
Patients
Quality of Life
Radiation therapy
Review
Review Article
Risk Factors
Signal Transduction
Therapeutic targets
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Summary:Head and neck cancer (HNC) is malignant, genetically complex and difficult to treat and is the sixth most frequent cancer, with tobacco, alcohol and human papillomavirus being major risk factors. Based on epigenetic data, HNC is remarkably heterogeneous, and treatment remains challenging. There is a lack of significant improvement in survival and quality of life in patients with HNC. Over half of HNC patients experience locoregional recurrence or distal metastasis despite the current multiple traditional therapeutic strategies and immunotherapy. In addition, resistance to chemotherapy, radiotherapy and some targeted therapies is common. Therefore, it is urgent to explore more effective and tolerable targeted therapies to improve the clinical outcomes of HNC patients. Recent targeted therapy studies have focused on identifying promising biomarkers and developing more effective targeted therapies. A well understanding of the pathogenesis of HNC contributes to learning more about its inner association, which provides novel insight into the development of small molecule inhibitors. In this review, we summarized the vital signaling pathways and discussed the current potential therapeutic targets against critical molecules in HNC, as well as presenting preclinical animal models and ongoing or completed clinical studies about targeted therapy, which may contribute to a more favorable prognosis of HNC. Targeted therapy in combination with other therapies and its limitations were also discussed.
ISSN:2059-3635
2095-9907
2059-3635
DOI:10.1038/s41392-022-01297-0