Personalizing T-cell Targeted Immunotherapy for the Head and Neck Cancer Patient

Shay Sharon ^1,2,3 R. Bryan Bell ^2,3 Marka Crittenden ² Michael Gough ²

¹Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center
²Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Robert W. Franz Cancer Center, Providence Portland Medical Center
³Head and Neck Institute, Providence Portland Cancer Center

Objective: Personalize immunotherapy for the head and neck cancer patient by utilizing ex-vivo tissue profiling methods.

Methods: 1. Explants were produced from freshly resected human and murine head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumors that were dissected into fragments. 2. Each explant was overlaid with media containing various immunomodulating agents. 3. Cytokine secretion was analyzed and an immune-profile was generated for each tumor.

Results: Treatment of explants with immunotherapeutic agents resulted in a significant increase in interferon-gamma secretion, while secretion-pattern of other cytokines proved to be more specific to each tumor and immunomodulation method. CTLA-4 blockade led to a more prominent increase in cytokine secretion than other checkpoint inhibition methods.

Conclusion: We propose that explants derived from surgical or biopsy material may be utilized to generate a patient-specific immune-profile and for investigation of various immunomodulating methods ex-vivo. We believe that this system may be harnessed for understanding the variability in response rates, and for personalizing treatment to accommodate the circumstances of each patient and the specific environment of each tumor.