Open Access

Katharina Witzke

• Over the past several years, various important articles focusing on cancer therapy approaches in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) using cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) have been published (SEMMLER et al. 2020 [53], METELMANN et al. 2018 [44], KEIDAR et al. 2011 [33]). This doctoral thesis presents selected results from a prospective observational clinical study in CAP therapy of palliative HNSCC patients, carried out at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Plastic Surgery of the Greifswald University Medicine. For oral and maxillofacial surgeons, ulcerated surfaces of locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (UICC IV) offer a challenging treatment assignment with microbial contamination and tumour progression. The clinical attempt appears to eradicate microbial contamination and to initiate tumour regression. This doctoral thesis will describe the processes of human tumour biology and tumour immunology in HNSCCs and the extent of present knowledge concerning plasma medical oncology as an anticancer modality. In the introduction of the doctoral thesis clinical results of plasma therapy in locally advanced HNSCCs (UICC IV) are set out. This mainly includes the investigation of a therapeutic concept, the treatment phases, the tumour size development and the morphological changes of the infected tumour surface following cold atmospheric plasma therapy. In the main part, a detailed immunological interpretation is proposed on the basis of present preclinical and clinical immunological knowledge. Finally, unexplored questions in plasma medical oncology are highlighted. This is highly significant for future plasma research and clinical anticancer therapy.