The importance of Immunotherapy in 2013/14 vs. 2022/23 – A survey of the DGHNO Oncology Working Group

Introduction Since our last survey on systemic oncologic therapy (SOT), PD-1 antibodies were approved for palliative treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Several years after this approval, we repeated the survey posing exactly the same questions.

Material / Method An online survey (OS) directed at all Otorhinolaryngology departments was conducted in the years 2013/14 (OS1) and 22/23 (OS2) (including Austria and Switzerland in OS1).

Seven questions assessing the importance of immunotherapy (IT) were posed. The ordinally scaled answers were analyzed using Chi2 tests (likelihood ratio).

Results In OS1, 62/204 centers (30.3%) responded and in OS2 51/172 centers (29.6%). The current importance of IT was assessed significantly higher (p<0.001) as well as the future role of IT (p=0.004). A higher future importance was attributed to immune checkpoint modulation (p<0.001) and therapeutic vaccines (p=0.046) in OS2 compared to OS1. No significant difference was found in the fraction of participants following IT developments in other cancer types, the role of the immune system for the better prognosis of HPV-positive patients and the role of prophylactic HPV vaccines.

Conclusion The reception of the role of IT in the community has changed significantly within the last decade. Due to progress made in immune checkpoint modulation and vaccine development, the future role for these treatments is now expected to be higher.

Publication History

Article published online:
19 April 2024