Fig. 2: Applications of multi-omics in research of HNSCC immunotherapy.

First, multi-omics helps to understand and strengthen the role of immunotherapy, identify the role of tdLN and various immunosuppressive cells in HNSCC immunotherapy, and reveal the molecular mechanism of the good efficacy of multi-target immunotherapy. Secondly, multi-omics can predict the response of immunotherapy by revealing the immune microenvironment of patients and combining small molecules, specific cell subtypes, prediction models, and tertiary lymphoid structures. In addition, multi-omics can develop personalized treatment options by combining the patient’s gene mutation information, HPV infection, and anatomical sites, such as immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy and targeted therapy. At the same time, multi-omics helps to establish highly simulated preclinical research models, such as cell lines, organoids, and animal models. Finally, multi-omics can help to discover new therapeutic targets in different immunotherapy, including immune checkpoints, tumor vaccines, cell adoptive therapy, small molecule inhibitors, and therapeutic antibodies. CAFs cancer-associated fibroblasts, CAR-T chimeric antigen receptor T, CTLA-4 cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4, HNSCC head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, MDSCs myeloid-derived suppressor cells, 4-NQO 4-Nitroquinoline N-oxide, tdLN tumor-draining lymph node, PD-1 programmed death 1, PD-L1 programmed death ligand 1. Created with BioRender.com.