Yen CJ, et al. - Given the poor prognosis of advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma, researchers examined the efficacy of cetuximab-based sequential therapy as a primary treatment. Forty-seven treatment-naive patients with advanced tumors originating from the oral cavity or oropharynx were administered neoadjuvant cetuximab, paclitaxel, and cisplatin, followed by cetuximab-based radiotherapy. Outcomes revealed the best overall response rate of 70.2%, including 4 patients with a complete response and 29 with a partial response. Better survival outcomes were noted for patients with more than 50% tumor reduction with neoadjuvant therapy. Severe adverse events (mostly dermatological complications) were noted among 22 patients. Findings suggest the effectiveness of the regimen in selected patients. The post hoc study suggested altered tumor features in correlation to increased PD-L1.