Head and neck carcinoma (HNC) are diseases arising from several tracts of the aerodigestive ways. Most HNC are squamous cell carcinoma (SCCHN). Immunotherapy is a treatment strategy aimed to reinforce the immune system. Several types of immunotherapy are available in the clinical scenario. Checkpoint inhibitors were developed later in SCCHN; nivolumab and pembrolizumab have reached the clinical approval, having both drugs demonstrated to significantly improve the overall survival, if compared with the standard of treatment (according to the results of the CheckMate 141 and KEYNOTE-040 trials). Nevertheless, immunotherapy may fail because of the genetics of SCCHN. In fact, two genetically different types of SCCHN have been discovered, one virus-related (HPV) and the other mutagens-related. They seem to show in clinical trials very different responses to immunotherapy. Given the existence of a number of factors predictive of response to immunotherapy in SCCHN, a future clinical approach may be to characterize the genetic and immunologic feature of SCCHN and to perform a well-tailored immunotherapy. This review will summarize the main immunotherapy strategies available in SCCHN, discussing their real efficacy, highlighting also the ways to improve them.

头颈癌 (HNC) 是由呼吸消化道的多个管道引起的疾病。大多数 HNC 是鳞状细胞癌 (SCCHN)。免疫疗法是一种旨在增强免疫系统的治疗策略。临床上有几种类型的免疫疗法。检查点抑制剂是后来在 SCCHN 中开发出来的； nivolumab 和 pembrolizumab 已获得临床批准，与治疗标准相比（根据 CheckMate 141 和 KEYNOTE-040 试验的结果），这两种药物均被证明可显着提高总体生存率。然而，由于 SCCHN 的遗传因素，免疫治疗可能会失败。事实上，已经发现了两种遗传上不同类型的 SCCHN，一种与病毒相关 (HPV)，另一种与诱变剂相关。它们似乎在临床试验中表现出对免疫疗法截然不同的反应。鉴于存在许多预测 SCCHN 免疫治疗反应的因素，未来的临床方法可能是表征 SCCHN 的遗传和免疫学特征，并进行量身定制的免疫治疗。这篇综述将总结 SCCHN 中可用的主要免疫治疗策略，讨论它们的真正疗效，并强调改进它们的方法。