Update of head and neck cancer 2025

The term head and neck cancer subsumes a heterogenous group of malignant tumors of the head and neck area. The complex anatomy in this region often leads to severe impairment of esthetics and function in affected patients. Therefore, a multidisciplinary team of experts is required to guarantee optimal therapeutic concepts for each individual patient. While surgical approaches, often in combination with digital planning and intraoperative navigation, are still first-line therapy for many head and neck tumors, great progress has been made in the field of pharmaceutical and radio-oncological therapies. Radiotherapeutic procedures are beneficial in the adjuvant or definitive setting. Immune checkpoint inhibition has already been established as standard of care in recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Its role in neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapeutic approaches is currently being investigated in a variety of prospective studies.