Currently, treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients offer limited efficacy given that 5-year survival for these patients is globally around 50%. Immunotherapy has been recently approved for treating HNSCC, however, it is primarily used for palliative treatment due to a low response rate. Therefore, there is an unmet need for a better understating of the mechanisms negatively interfering with immune effector cell function to improve the patient selection for immunotherapy. This project aims to: (I) determine the underlying mechanisms negatively interfering with immune effector cell function and apply this knowledge for identifying biomarkers for patients' response to immunotherapy; (II) optimize an in vitro microfluidic chip assay for personalized testing of immunotherapy; and (III) increase the activity of immune effector cells by reverting the impaired effector cell function and the immune-suppressive tumor microenvironment.

2023

2027