Dr. Duffield on Implications for Immunotherapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Amy Duffield, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, member, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, discusses the implications for immunotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is driven by Epstein-barr virus, and has a relatively poor clinical outcome when patients are treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Duffield says that new therapies, such as immunotherapy, could be beneficial for these patients.

In an analysis of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, investigators from Johns Hopkins Medicine aimed to find new combinations of immunotherapies to more successfully treat this neoplasm. Archival specimens of nasopharyngeal carcinoma were collected and characterized in order to hopefully make more effective individualized immunotherapy regimens for patients, Duffield explains.