Circulating T cell status and molecular imaging may predict clinical benefit of neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade in oral cancer.
Niels E WondergemIris H C MiedemaRieneke van de VenGerben J C ZwezerijnenPim de GraafK Hakki KaragozogluJan-Jaap HendrickxSimone E J EerensteinRolf J BunDorien C MulderJens VoortmanRonald BoellaardAlbert D WindhorstJ Pascal HagersLaura A N PeferoenTanja D de GruijlElisabeth BloemenaRuud H BrakenhoffC René LeemansCatharina Willemien Menke-van der Houven van OordtPublished in: Journal for immunotherapy of cancer (2024)
Together these data support that neoadjuvant treatment of advanced-stage oral cancers with nivolumab was safe and induced an MPR in a promising 19% of patients. Response was associated with decreased FDG PET uptake as well as activation status of peripheral T cell populations.