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REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1554835
The Role of the Tumor Microenvironment in HNSCC Resistance and Targeted Therapy
Provisionally accepted- Longgang ENT Hospital, Institute of ENT and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of ENT, Shenzhen, China
The prognosis for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains unfavorable, primarily due to significant therapeutic resistance and the absence effective interventions. A major obstacle in cancer treatment is the persistent resistance of cancer cells to a variety of therapeutic modalities. The tumor microenvironment (TME) which includes encompasses all non-malignant components and their metabolites within the tumor tissue, plays a crucial role in this context. The distinct characteristics of the HNSCC TME facilitate tumor growth, invasion, metastasis, and resistance to treatment. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the HNSCC TME components, with a particular focus on tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), regulatory T cells (Tregs), myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), the extracellular matrix, reprogrammed metabolic processes, and metabolic products. It elucidates their contributions to modulating resistance to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy in HNSCC, and explores novel therapeutic strategies targeting the TME for HNSCC management.
Keywords: Tumor Microenvironment, HNSCC, target therapy, Resistance, TAMs
Received: 03 Jan 2025; Accepted: 10 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guo, Li, Ren, Wang, Yang, Ma, Zeng and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Peng Zhang, Longgang ENT Hospital, Institute of ENT and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of ENT, Shenzhen, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.