Cancer immunotherapies have shown promising clinical outcomes; however, the majority of patients are non-responders or will develop resistance during the course of treatment. One of the current challenges is to increase the response rate to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Combining immunotherapy with radiation therapy (RT) is emerging as a valuable strategy to prime the immune response. However, RT dose and ultimate efficacy are limited by toxicity related to exposure of healthy tissues. […]
Despite recent advances, resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), observed in over 80% of treated patients, is currently the main challenge immuno-oncology is facing. Intense efforts are being made to identify combination therapies that could improve ICI response rates. Administered intratumorally, NBTXR3 enhances the energy dose deposited by ionizing radiation within tumor cells, increasing the anti-tumor efficacy of radiation therapy (XRT) without adding toxicity to surrounding tissues. […]
Elderly and frail patients (pts) with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HSNCC) remain a challenging population to manage due to the lack of evidence-based recommendations. Despite representing approximately 20% of the HNSCC population no consensus exists on the optimal treatment for these pts with locally advanced (LA) disease, vulnerable to current standard of care treatment-induced toxicities. New approaches are thus needed to improve clinical outcomes without adding toxicity. NBTXR3 hafnium oxide nanoparticles injected intratumorally may represent such an option. […]
Concurrent chemoradiation (CRT) with high dose cisplatin or cetuximab in case of contra-indication to cisplatin is the standard of care non-surgical approach for patients (pts) with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (LA HNSCC). Older age is a contra-indication to cisplatin and survival in older pts might not improve with cetuximab. The development of new treatment options for elderly pts with LA HNSCC is therefore urgently needed. […]
Despite the past decade of transformative advances in immuno-oncology, the response rate to checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains low (~15%). There is significant interest in developing strategies to overcome resistance to these treatments, thus increasing response rate. Emerging evidence suggests that radiation therapy (RT) could potentially augment the antitumor response to ICIs through synergic effect. […]
Elderly and/or frail patients (pts) with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HSNCC) remain a challenging to manage and neglected population regarding clinical trials and data generation to support treatment choices. Despite representing 20% of the HNSCC population no consensus exists on what is the optimal treatment for these pts with locally advanced (LA) disease, vulnerable to treatment-induced toxicities with the current standard of care. […]