大多数头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）患者将表现出局部晚期疾病，需要多模式治疗。虽然这种方法有治愈目的，但这些患者中的一部分将发展成局部区域失败和/或远处转移。这些患者的预后较差，需要紧急需要除姑息性化疗以外的治疗选择。表皮生长因子受体（EGFR）过表达是HNSCC病理发生的重要因素，十年前，EGFR靶向的单克隆抗体西妥昔单抗在不同的情况下被批准用于治疗晚期HNSCC。2016年，抗程序性死亡-1（PD-1）免疫检查点抑制剂尼伐普利和欣普利索均被批准用于治疗经过含铂化疗的复发性或转移性HNSCC患者，并且在2019年，欣普利索被批准用于一线治疗（可以是PD-L1表达肿瘤的单药治疗，也可以与化疗联合使用）。目前，试验正在进行中，以包括免疫检查点抑制剂于（新辅助）HNSCC治疗中，以及在复发/转移设置中与其他药物的新组合中，以提高响应率和生存率，并帮助克服对免疫检查点阻断的耐药机制。本文全面回顾了在免疫治疗的当前时代头颈癌的管理。 ©2023该作者，独家许可Springer Nature Switzerland AG。

Most patients diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) will present with locally advanced disease, requiring multimodality therapy. While this approach has a curative intent, a significant subset of these patients will develop locoregional failure and/or distant metastases. The prognosis of these patients is poor, and therapeutic options other than palliative chemotherapy are urgently needed. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression is an important factor in the pathogenesis of HNSCC, and a decade ago, the EGFR targeting monoclonal antibody cetuximab was approved for the treatment of late-stage HNSCC in different settings. In 2016, the anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitors nivolumab and pembrolizumab were both approved for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic HNSCC with disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy, and in 2019, pembrolizumab was approved for first-line treatment (either as monotherapy in PD-L1 expressing tumors, or in combination with chemotherapy). Currently, trials are ongoing to include immune checkpoint inhibition in the (neo)adjuvant treatment of HNSCC as well as in novel combinations with other drugs in the recurrent/metastatic setting to improve response rates and survival and help overcome resistance mechanisms to immune checkpoint blockade. This article provides a comprehensive review of the management of head and neck cancers in the current era of immunotherapy.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.