ArticleCancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII2013
Decreased HPV-specific T cell responses and accumulation of immunosuppressive influences in oropharyngeal cancer patients following radical therapy.
Article in Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Immune microenvironment modulation unmasks therapeutic benefit of radiotherapy and checkpoint inhibition.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2019Trial
- Head and neck cancer therapeutic vaccines: a review.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- HPV-specific innovations and controversies in therapeutic strategies for HPV-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Vaginal Microbiota and Local Immunity in HPV-Induced High-Grade Cervical Dysplasia: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Correlation between vaginal flora and cervical immune function of human papilloma virus-infected patients with cervical cancer.African health sciences · 2023Article
- Cisplatin inhibits frequency and suppressive activity of monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells in cancer patients.Oncoimmunology · 2021Article
- A Phase 1 Trial Assessing the Safety and Tolerability of a Therapeutic DNA Vaccination Against HPV16 and HPV18 E6/E7 Oncogenes After Chemoradiation for Cervical Cancer.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2020Article
- Indicators for secondary carcinoma in head and neck cancer patients following curative therapy: A retrospective clinical study.Molecular and clinical oncology · 2020Article
- HPV Involvement in the Tumor Microenvironment and Immune Treatment in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas.Cancers · 2020Review
- The Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy of Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2020Review
- Tumor microenvironment modulation enhances immunologic benefit of chemoradiotherapy.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2019Article
- Multiple primary malignancies in patients with anal squamous cell carcinoma.Journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2018Article
- Spontaneous CD4European journal of immunology · 2017Article
- Management of locally advanced HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: where are we?European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2016Review
- Differences in T-cell infiltrates and survival between HPV+ and HPV- oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.Future science OA · 2016Review
- The rationale for HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer de-escalation treatment strategies.Contemporary oncology (Poznan, Poland) · 2015Article
- Chemoradiotherapy-induced upregulation of PD-1 antagonizes immunity to HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer.Cancer research · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) is a type of squamous cell head and neck cancer that is often associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, suggesting the potential for immunotherapeutic targeting of HPV antigens. This study aimed to determine the effect of radical therapy on HPV-specific T cells and other immune parameters in 20 OPC patients, as a prelude to future immunotherapy studies. HPV DNA could be detected in 9/12 available tissue samples (8/9 HPV(+) samples were also p16(+)). HPV-specific T cell responses against HPV16 E6 and E7 peptides were detected by enzyme-linked immunoSPOT in 10/13 and 8/13 evaluable patients, respectively, but did not appear to correlate with HPV status. Post-treatment, both HPV E6 and E7 T cell responses were decreased (4/13 and 2/13 patients, respectively). These reductions in T cell response could not be explained by a concurrent decrease in memory T cells whose absolute numbers were relatively unaffected by radical therapy (27,975 vs. 25,661/10(5) PBMC) despite a significant decrease in overall lymphocyte counts (1.74 vs. 0.69 × 10(9)/L). Instead, there were significant increases in regulatory T cells (3.7 vs. 6.8 %) and a population of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (CD14(-)HLA-DR(-)CD15(hi), 12.38 vs. 21.92 %). This suggests that immunosuppression may contribute to the reduction in HPV-specific T cell responses post-treatment, although study of larger patient cohorts will be required to test whether this affects clinical outcome. Overall these findings suggest that HPV-targeted immunotherapy in post-therapy OPC patients will require multiple strategies to boost T cell immunity and to overcome the influence of immunosuppressive cells.
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