Locally advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNC) is a challenging disease for the lack of effective therapies even in the era of molecular medicine (the five-year survival does not exceed 40%). For patients with metastatic and recurrent HNC, the standard treatment is the combination of Cetuximab/Platinum and Fluorouracil but the median overall survival rate for this population remains lower than 11%. The main reasons for these disappointing outcomes include acquired drug resistance, anti Epidermal growth factor variants, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and tumor hypoxia. Angiogenesis plays a crucial role in HNSCC development and proliferation. Drugs may interfere with the angiogenic process via different mechanisms and there is a sound rationale for combining anti-angiogenic agents with chemotherapy or multiple anti-angiogenic strategies. Promising preclinical results with angiogenic inhibitors have engendered a number of trials, but until now there are not yet conclusive data on the value of anti-angiogenic therapy in HNC. This paper aims to review the role of angiogenesis inhibitors in head and neck cancer.
Head and Neck Cancer Research received 28 citations as per google scholar report