Advances and Challenges in Head and Neck Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

Much has been made over the past two decades in the treatment of advanced recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer, particularly in the immunotherapy era with agents such as nivolumab and pembrolizumab, used alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Nevertheless, achieving consistent responses to immunotherapy in all patients remains a challenge, in part due to the lack of reliable predictive biomarkers; PD-L1 expression alone is clearly insufficient.

A significant step forward comes from recent findings demonstrating the benefit of pembrolizumab in both neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings for locally advanced disease. There is also great expectation for multiple blockades in terms of immunotherapy, including, among others, anti LAG3 and TIM 3, despite some recent disappointing clinical trial outcomes. Regarding radiosensitizers for definitive treatment for locally advanced disease, research has explored alternatives beyond platinum-based agents and cetuximab, though results have not always met expectations. Nonetheless, research continues in this area.

The overarching goal remains to develop more effective treatments for this challenging disease, reduce recurrence, and prevent the emergence of multiple tumors within the same patient. This Special Issue provides an opportunity for investigators to publish their research and share findings, perspectives, and reviews with the scientific community.

Dr. Marc Oliva
Dr. Leonor Abreu Ribeiro
Dr. Claúdia Vieira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.