Complete Cure of Inoperable Stage IV Locally Advanced Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by an Innovative Combination Cancer Immunotherapy Consisting of Radiation, Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, and Dendritic Cell Vaccine

We report the case of a 68-year-old man with locally advanced (LA) head and neck cancer (HNC) (LA-HNC). The patient was diagnosed with inoperable stage IVA hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma with 2 cm primary and three lymph node metastatic cancers. The patient was treated with an innovative combination cancer immunotherapy (iCCI) consisting of radiotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and helper/killer-hybrid epitope long peptides (H/K-HELP)-pulsed dendritic cell vaccine. These three treatments constituting iCCI are known to show an immunomodulating effect on tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLNs) and improve antitumor immunity in tumor microenvironments (TMEs) to reduce tumor growth. Surprisingly, the patient treated with iCCI showed a complete cure for all the cancers including primary and lymph node-metastatic cancers without standard chemotherapy. The patient is still cancer-free for almost two years. Although the destruction mechanism of cancer is not determined, we speculate this iCCI might improve the patient's antitumor immune capability around tumor sites including TDLNs and TME. Our developed iCCI will become a promising strategy to overcome inoperable cancers in the future.