Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor immunotherapy in combination with cisplatin chemoradiation for patients with advanced head and neck carcinoma—biological and clinical limitations of the triple treatment

Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck region (HNSCC) is the sixth important tumour entity by incidence worldwide associated with more than 300,000 HNSCC related deaths/year (1). Current standard treatment, especially in the advanced situation, comprises definitive cisplatinum based chemoradiation therapy (CRT) or adjuvant CRT after surgical resection in patients with high risk tumours (2). Prognosis, however, remains poor for the entire entity with 5-year survival rates around 50% (3).