Changes in Gene Expression Patterns in the Tumor Microenvironment of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Under Chemoradiotherapy Depend on Response.

Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is a standard treatment for advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Unfortunately, not all patients respond to this therapy and require further treatment, either salvage surgery or palliative therapy. The addition of immunotherapy to CRT is currently being investigated and early results describe a mixed response. Therefore, it is important to understand the impact of CRT on the tumor microenvironment (TME) to be able to interpret the results of the clinical trials. Paired biopsies from 30 HNSCC patients were collected before and three months after completion of primary CRT and interrogated for the expression of 1392 immune- and cancer-related genes. There was a relevant difference in the number of differentially expressed genes between the total cohort and patients with residual disease. Genes involved in T cell activation showed significantly reduced expression in these tumors after therapy. Furthermore, gene enrichment for several T cell subsets confirmed this observation. The analysis of tissue resident memory T cells (T

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Copyright © 2022 Doescher, von Witzleben, Boukas, Weissinger, Thomas, Laban, Thomas, Hoffmann and Ottensmeier.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

JD received reimbursements for advisory boards of MSD and Merck Serono. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.