Prognosis Prediction and Risk Stratification in Head and Neck Cancer

Head and neck cancer is the seventh most common cancer worldwide, accounting for 3% of all cancers. For patients with early-stage disease, either surgery alone or definitive radiation therapy alone results in an excellent treatment outcome. However, the majority of newly diagnosed patients present with local-regionally advanced disease and require multi-modality treatment. The treatment outcomes of these patients are far from satisfactory. It is widely recognized that treatment outcome is determined by a complex interaction of multiple factors including biological, clinical, treatment, and environmental factors. However, current treatment decisions primarily rely on the clinical stage, which does not always reflect the variable clinical course and long-term outcomes. Recent advances in radiomics, genomics, proteomics, microbiome, AI technique and machine learning, and other potential imaging, biological, and clinical factors, alone or in combinations, may provide new insights into the prognosis prediction and treatment response in head and neck cancer. Risk stratification based on these prognostic and predictive biomarkers will help design of future clinical trials and personalized treatment in head and neck cancer.

This Research Topic will aim at presenting the latest advances in basic, translational, and clinical research findings about predictions of treatment outcome and response, and risk stratification in head and neck cancer, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma and how these affect future clinical trials and treatment decision in head and neck cancer.

This Research Topic encourages manuscript submission of various types, including Original Research, Mini Review, Review, Brief Research Report, and Letter to the Editor.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal should focus on but are not limited to:
• Prediction of treatment outcome and response using imaging biomarkers, molecular biomarkers including cfDNA, EBV-DNA, and HPV-DNA, microbiome, artificial intelligence (AI) technique and machine learning, and other potential biological or clinical factors, in combinations with in-vitro / in-vivo validation.
• Latest development and validation of predictive models for head and neck cancer.
• Outcomes of clinical trials based on prediction models established from above research.
• Updated information about or preliminary results of ongoing clinical trials covering this theme.

Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.