Recent findings on the impact of ErbB receptors status on prognosis and therapy of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Most head and neck cancers are derived from the mucosal epithelium in the oral cavity, pharynx and larynx and are known collectively as head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Oral cavity and larynx cancers are generally associated with tobacco consumption, alcohol abuse or both, whereas pharynx cancers are increasingly attributed to infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), primarily HPV-16. Thus, HNSCC can be separated into HPV-negative or HPV-positive HNSCC. Despite evidence of histological progression from cellular atypia through various degrees of dysplasia, ultimately leading to invasive HNSCC, most patients are diagnosed with late-stage HNSCC without a clinically evident antecedent premalignant lesion. Traditional staging of HNSCC using the tumour-node-metastasis system has been supplemented by the 2017 AJCC/UICC staging system, which incorporated additional information relevant to HPV-positive disease. The treatment approach is generally multimodal, consisting of surgery followed by chemotherapy plus radiation (chemoradiation or CRT) for oral cavity cancers and primary CRT for pharynx and larynx cancers. The EGFR monoclonal antibody cetuximab is generally used in combination with radiation in HPV-negative HNSCC where co-morbidities prevent the use of cytotoxic chemotherapy. The FDA approved the immune checkpoint inhibitors pembrolizumab and nivolumab for treatment of recurrent or metastatic HNSCC and pembrolizumab as primary treatment for unresectable disease. Elucidation of the molecular genetic landscape of HNSCC over the past decade has revealed new opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Ongoing efforts aim to integrate our understanding of HNSCC biology and immunobiology to identify predictive biomarkers that will enable delivery of the most effective, least toxic therapies.

The Cancer Genome Atlas profiled 279 head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) to provide a comprehensive landscape of somatic genomic alterations. We find that human papillomavirus-associated (HPV) tumors are dominated by helicase domain mutations of the oncogene PIK3CA, novel alterations involving loss of TRAF3, and amplification of the cell cycle gene E2F1. Smoking-related HNSCCs demonstrate near universal loss of TP53 mutations and CDKN2A with frequent copy number alterations including a novel amplification of 11q22. A subgroup of oral cavity tumors with favorable clinical outcomes displayed infrequent CNAs in conjunction with activating mutations of HRAS or PIK3CA, coupled with inactivating mutations of CASP8, NOTCH1 and wild-type TP53. Other distinct subgroups harbored novel loss of function alterations of the chromatin modifier NSD1, Wnt pathway genes AJUBA and FAT1, and activation of oxidative stress factor NFE2L2, mainly in laryngeal tumors. Therapeutic candidate alterations were identified in the majority of HNSCC's.