Dr. Cohen on Challenges with Immunotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer

Ezra Cohen, MD, associate director, Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, discusses challenges with immunotherapy in head and neck cancer.

It is difficult with a disease like head and neck cancer that has both a viral etiology and a tobacco-related etiology, says Cohen. There is not much different between response rates with the anti—PD-1s or the anti–PD-L1 agents for those 2 entities.

Additionally, Cohen says, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is a rapidly progressing disease, and immunotherapy takes time to work—time that patients may not have.