Title: Lingual Denervation Improves the Anti-PD-1 Immunotherapy Efficacy in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas
Presenter: Miss TAO Zhuoying, PhD candidate
Supervisors: Dr. Y. Su (Primary Supervisor) and Prof. X.
Guan (Co-supervisor)
Abstract
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the eighth most common
malignancy worldwide. The 5-year survival rate of oral
cancer is poor, only around 50%. Checkpoint blockade
immunotherapy is a new thriving therapeutic regimen for
advanced-stage patients with OSCC. However, the therapeutic
efficacy varies among patients, and no more than one-fifth
of patients benefit from it, possibly due to inadequate
immune activation. Many efforts have been made to address
this issue, but little was achieved. Accumulative evidence
contributes to the relationship between nerve-tumor
crosstalk and poor clinical outcomes in cancer, but few
studies focus on the relationship between neural involvement
and anti-tumor immunity in cancer. Therefore, we hypothesize
that neural infiltration may remodel the tumor
microenvironment to an immunosuppressive status in OSCC.
Issues awaiting clarification include the underlying
mechanisms for the nerve-tumor crosstalk leading to immune
suppression as well as immunotherapy resistance in OSCC. The
proposed study aims to determine the possible tumor
cell-intrinsic alteration in response to neural signaling,
which is responsible for immune suppression and unfavorable
immunotherapy efficacy in tumors with nerve infiltration.
Registration Instruction
Registration is not required.
Contact Information
Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact Ms. Cathie Chui by email at lychui@hku.hk