Issues

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the 6th most common cancer among men and has one of the highest cancer incidence rates in the United States. Patients with oral premalignant lesions (OPLs) are under constant fear of cancer development, sometimes for decades, and about 30% OPLs still progress to OSCC despite current treatments. Mutations in TP53 have been detected in approximately 30% of the OPLs, suggesting that these mutations arise early during oral tumor development and might influence the progression of OPLs, and their response to preventive strategies. Recently, immunotherapy in the form of immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) has recently been introduced as a promising therapeutic option for patients with solid tumors including OSCC. In the study starting on page 767, Rangel and colleagues used wild type and mutant p53 mice to demonstrate a novel approach of local delivery of anti-PD-1 antibody, which significantly prevents the progression of OPLs to carcinomas in a carcinogenesis oral cancer mouse model. A single local dose of PD1 inhibitor restores STING expression, infiltration of CD11c+ dendritic, and CD8+ T cells into the tumor immune environment irrespective of the p53 mutational status. The cover shows a Hematoxylin and eosin stain image of oral mild dysplasia treated with IgG2a in p53 wild-type mice.