Chronic Stress Promotes an Immunologic Inflammatory State and Head and Neck Cancer Growth in a Humanized Murine Model

BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of immune response and environmental stress on head and neck cancer (HNC) outcomes, no current pre-clinical stress model includes a humanized immune system. METHODS: We investigated the effects of chronic stress induced by social isolation on tumor growth and human immune response in subcutaneous HNC tumors grown in NSG-SGM3 mice engrafted with a human immune system. RESULTS: Tumor growth (p