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Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck originates from the mucosal lining of the upper aerodigestive tract, including the lip, tongue, nasopharynx, oropharynx, larynx and hypopharynx. In this review, we summarise what is currently known about the potential function of primary cilia in the pathogenesis of this disease. As primary cilia represent a key cellular structure for signal transduction and are related to cell proliferation, an understanding of their role in carcinogenesis is necessary for the design of new treatment approaches. Here, we introduce cilia-related signalling in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and its possible association with HNSCC tumorigenesis. From this point of view, PDGF, EGF, Wnt and Hh signalling are discussed as all these pathways were found to be dysregulated in HNSCC. Moreover, we review the clinical potential of small molecules affecting primary cilia signalling to target squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck area., Competing Interests: The 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., (Copyright © 2024 Putnová, Putnová, Hurník, Štembírek, Buchtová and Kolísková.)

Introduction: In the era of personalized medicine and treatment optimization, use of immune biomarkers holds promise for estimating the prognosis of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) undergoing definitive treatment., Methods: To evaluate the prognostic potential of immune biomarkers, we conducted a prospective monocentric cohort study with loco-regionally advanced HNSCC patients indicated for definitive radiotherapy/radiochemotherapy at the Department of Oncology, Ostrava University Hospital, Czech Republic, between June 2020 and August 2023. We focused on the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) relative to overall survival (OS) and specific survival rates. Associations between biomarkers and survival rates were assessed by crude and adjusted hazard ratios (cHR, aHR, respectively) obtained from Cox proportional hazards regression., Results: Among a total of 55 patients within a median follow-up of 19.7 months, there were 21 (38.2%) all-cause deaths and 15 (27.3%) cancer-related deaths. An overall survival (OS) rate of 61.8% and a disease-specific survival (DSS) rate of 72.7% were recorded. A significant association between survival rates and a ≥10% difference in PD-L1 expression on immune versus tumor cells (high PD-L1 IC expression) was documented regardless of the type of analysis (univariate or multivariate). In addition, a stronger association was confirmed for OS and the composite biomarker high PD-L1 IC expression along with either median-higher CD8+ TIL count or increased TIL density ≥30%, as indicated by an aHR of 0.08 (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.52) and 0.07 (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.46), respectively. Similar results were demonstrated for other specific survival rates., Discussion: The early outcomes of the present study suggest the utility of a strong prognostic factor involving a composite biomarker high PD-L1 IC expression along with increased TIL density in HNSCC patients undergoing definitive radiotherapy and radiochemotherapy., Trial Registration: The study is registered with Clinicaltrials.gov. - NCT05941676., Competing Interests: The 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., (Copyright © 2024 Blažek, Petráš, Hurník, Matoušek, Knybel, Čermáková, Štembírek, Cvek and Soumarová.)