Personalised Medicine and the Potential Role of Electrospinning for Targeted Immunotherapeutics in Head and Neck Cancer
Connor H. O’Meara,
Thanh Vinh Nguyen,
Zuhayr Jafri,
Michael Boyer,
David C. Shonka,
Levon M. Khachigian
Affiliations
Connor H. O’Meara
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, The Canberra Hospital, Garran, ACT 2605, Australia
Thanh Vinh Nguyen
School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Zuhayr Jafri
Vascular Biology and Translational Research, Department of Pathology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Michael Boyer
Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia
David C. Shonka
Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
Levon M. Khachigian
Vascular Biology and Translational Research, Department of Pathology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) is functionally and aesthetically destructive, and despite significant advances in therapy, overall survival is poor, financial toxicity is high, and treatment commonly exacerbates tissue damage. Although response and durability concerns remain, antibody-based immunotherapies have heralded a paradigm shift in systemic treatment. To overcome limitations associated with antibody-based immunotherapies, exploration into de novo and repurposed small molecule immunotherapies is expanding at a rapid rate. Small molecule immunotherapies also have the capacity for chelation to biodegradable, bioadherent, electrospun scaffolds. This article focuses on the novel concept of targeted, sustained release immunotherapies and their potential to improve outcomes in poorly accessible and risk for positive margin HNC cases.
