Background: Adding pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody approved for treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) to neoadjuvant (induction-) chemotherapy utilizing docetaxel and cisplatin (TP) followed by radiotherapy may improve outcome in larynx organ-preservation (LOP) that is investigated in the European Larynx-Organ preservation Study (ELOS). As biomarkers for response to TP and pembrolizumab +TP are missing but may include cytokines, this work aims on determining cytokines potentially linked to outcome as prognostic markers sufficient to predict and/or monitor response to successful LOP.
Methods: Collagenase IV digests were generated from 47 histopathological confirmed HNSCC tumor samples and seeded in 96-well plates containing pembrolizumab, docetaxel, cisplatin either solely or in binary or ternary combination.
Introduction: The larynx organ preservation (LOP) trial DeLOS-II enrolled = 173 patients with advanced laryngeal/hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LHSCC) amenable (only curatively resectable) through total laryngectomy (TL) to receive induction chemotherapy (IC) with TPF [docetaxel (T), cisplatin (P), and 5-fluorouracil (F)] (arm A, 85 patients) or additional cetuximab (E) weekly (arm B, 88 patients). Responders with endoscopic estimated tumor surface shrinkage (ETSS) ≥30% after 1 cycle IC (IC-1) received a further two cycles of IC followed by radiotherapy (RT), whereas TL was recommended for non-responders. Arm B failed to show superior 24-month laryngectomy-free survival (LFS) and overall survival (OS), the protocol-specified primary and secondary endpoints.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is among most frequent malignancies of the head and neck. Recent oncologic research focusses on advanced rather than on early stages. Thus, we aimed to improve the knowledge concerning prognostic factors and survival in early glottic (GC) and supraglottic cancer (SGC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The European Larynx Organ Preservation Study (ELOS; NCT06137378) is a prospective, randomized, open-label, two-armed parallel group controlled, phase II multicenter larynx organ preservation (LOP) trial in locoregionally advanced (LA) stage III, IVA/B head and neck squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx or hypopharynx (LHSCC) amenable for total laryngectomy (TL) with PD-L1 expression within tumor tissue biopsy, calculated as CPS ≥ 1. Induction chemotherapy (IC) with docetaxel and cisplatin (TP) followed by radiation will be compared to TP plus PD-1 inhibition by pembrolizumab (MK-3475; 200 mg i.v.
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