Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) is one of the most common types of cancer globally. Over the last decade, the treatment of the disease has been transformed with the use of immune checkpoint blockade. In the recurrent and metastatic setting, ~50% overall response rates can be achieved, with rapid improvement in patient-reported quality-of-life, and cures confirmed with over five-years follow-up. Neoadjuvant immunotherapy approaches are currently under investigation with the tangible potential of reducing the need for multimodality treatment and facilitating avoidance of the morbidity associated with local therapy. The addition of one year of adjuvant programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) inhibitor therapy following surgery and radiation has improved disease-free survival by 68% in patients with clinicopathologically defined high-risk CSCC, without adverse impact on quality-of-life compared to placebo. This manuscript focuses on reviewing the published literature regarding immunotherapy use for the treatment of CSCC in different clinical settings and explores the data for biological factors that may assist clinicians in selecting patients for an immunotherapy-based treatment approach.
Lim et al. (Mon,) studied this question.