Investigations on the Prognostic Relevance of Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cells in HNSCC Patients on the Basis of RNAseq Data from the TCGA-HNSC Cohort and Immunohistochemical Validation on 101 Patients

Introduction Due to the increasing value of immune checkpoint inhibition in the therapeutic spectrum for HNSCC patients this scientific work carves out the prognostic relevance of tumor infiltrating immune cells. In this connection, RNA sequence data of the TCGA-HNSC cohort were used. For validation we planned a verification of the five most significant cell populations (naïve B cells, follicular T-helper cells, macrophages, regulatory T cells, lymphocytes) on a proprietary patient collective.