Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Clin Oncol. Sep 24, 2026; 17(9): 124416
Published online Sep 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.124416
Published online Sep 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.124416
Efficacy of two programmed cell death 1 combination regimens in recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck carcinoma: A real-world retrospective study
Jia-Xin Wang, Tian-Xiao Wang, Yun-Tao Song, Guo-Hui Xu, Ya-Bing Zhang, Bin Zhang, De
Co-first authors: Jia-Xin Wang and Tian-Xiao Wang.
Author contributions: Wang JX and Wang TX contributed to conceptualization, methodology, and manuscript drafting; Song YT, Xu GH and Zhang YB supervised the study and revised the manuscript; Zhang B was responsible for study supervision, project administration, critical review of the manuscript and final approval of the submitted version. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Wang JX and Wang TX contributed equally to this work as co-first authors.
AI contribution statement: Portions of this manuscript were edited using AI tools solely for language refinement. The authors carefully reviewed and verified all AI-assisted outputs and take full responsibility for the scientific content of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Peking University Cancer Hospital (No. 2019YJZ12).
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all patients or their relatives.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no competing interests.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Bin Zhang, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, No. 52 Fucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100142, China.
Received: June 15, 2026
Revised: August 5, 2026
Accepted: September 22, 2026
Published online: September 24, 2026
Processing time: 101 Days and 0 Hours
Revised: August 5, 2026
Accepted: September 22, 2026
Published online: September 24, 2026
Processing time: 101 Days and 0 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitors combined with cetuximab or anlotinib exhibit distinct therapeutic profiles in recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. In this real-world cohort study, PD-1 inhibitor plus cetuximab was associated with significantly prolonged overall survival, whereas PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib showed favorable tumor response and disease control. These distinct efficacy profiles may help inform individualized treatment selection for PD-1-based immunotherapy-targeted therapy combinations.