{"doi":"10.1002/hed.28128","title":"Combined Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes and <scp>PD</scp>‐<scp>L1</scp> Status in Recurrent/Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: To determine if the assessment of CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) adds prognostic information to the PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS) in recurrent/metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). METHODS: A retrospective case series was performed of 77 patients with R/M HNSCC between 2003 and 2019. From pre-treatment biopsies, CD8+ TILs and PD-L1 CPS were quantified on a tissue microarray. Associations of biomarkers with overall survival and immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) response were assessed. RESULTS: Neither CD8+ TIL counts nor PD-L1 CPS alone were associated with overall survival; however, combined high TILs and CPS ≥ 1 were associated with improved survival compared to low TILS and CPS < 1 (18.5 vs. 10.0 months, p = 0.058). For patients treated with ICI (n = 28), PD-L1 CPS predicted ICI response more strongly than CD8+ TILs. CONCLUSIONS: In R/M HNSCC, the combination of PD-L1 CPS and CD8+ TILs is a stronger prognostic biomarker for overall survival compared with either biomarker alone.","journal":"Head & Neck","year":2025,"id":562818,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9261,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":36486,"name":"Joshua D. Smith","orcid":"0000-0002-2076-7589","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":729794,"name":"Sarah M. Dermody","orcid":"0000-0003-4928-967X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":363237,"name":"Jonathan B. McHugh","orcid":"0000-0002-6138-8833","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1465275,"name":"William Perry","orcid":"0000-0003-4122-6578","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":497929,"name":"Collin Brummel","orcid":"0000-0001-7198-8560","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376563,"name":"Matthew E. Spector","orcid":"0000-0001-7646-6075","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376564,"name":"J. Chad Brenner","orcid":"0000-0003-3238-1111","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376562,"name":"Paul Swiecicki","orcid":"0000-0003-2286-3555","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":426001,"name":"Catherine T. Haring","orcid":"0000-0002-9317-6536","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":28,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:56:09.638214Z","pmid":"40045701","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}