Rathinasamy N, Muthu S, Krishnan A. Low-dose immunotherapy as a potentiator to increase the response with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in oral cancers. World J Clin Cases 2023; 11(17): 3976-3979 [PMID: 37388807 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i17.3976]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sathish Muthu, DNB, MS, Research Head, Department of Orthopaedics, Orthopaedic Research Group, Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore 641045, Tamil Nadu, India. drsathishmuthu@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Narmadha Rathinasamy, Department of Medical Oncology, PSG Institute of Medical Science and Research, Coimbatore 641004, Tamil Nadu, India
Sathish Muthu, Department of Orthopaedics, Orthopaedic Research Group, Coimbatore 641045, Tamil Nadu, India
Sathish Muthu, Department of Biotechnology, School of Engineering and Technology, Sharda University, New Delhi 201310, Uttar Pradesh, India
Sathish Muthu, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore 641021, Tamil Nadu, India
Anand Krishnan, Department of Chemical Pathology, School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
Author contributions: Rathinasamy N performed the conceptualization; Muthu S did the data curation; Rathinasamy N and Muthu S did the data analysis; the manuscript writing and revision by all authors.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sathish Muthu, DNB, MS, Research Head, Department of Orthopaedics, Orthopaedic Research Group, Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore 641045, Tamil Nadu, India. drsathishmuthu@gmail.com
Received: March 17, 2023 Peer-review started: March 17, 2023 First decision: May 12, 2023 Revised: May 12, 2023 Accepted: May 17, 2023 Article in press: May 17, 2023 Published online: June 16, 2023
Abstract
Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is utilized in locally advanced oral cancers to reduce the tumor burden and downstage the tumor to be amenable for definitive surgical management. Its long-term results compared to upfront surgical resection was not encouraging. Immunotherapy has now been used not only in recurrence and metastatic setting but also in the locally advanced tumor management regimens. The purpose of this concept paper is to bring forward the rationale to use a fixed low-dose immunotherapy agent as a potentiator to the standard NACT regimen and recommend their future investigation in oral cancer management.
Core Tip: There is a need to potentiate the effect of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in oral cancers. The utilization of immunotherapy to enhance NACT has been shown to reduce metastasis and recurrence. Hence, the concept of low-dose immunotherapy as a potentiator of NACT could be implemented in routine practice. Moreover, low-dose immunotherapy-enhanced NACT helps us understand the predictors of treatment response.
