PDCD1 and head and neck carcinoma: In recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), including antibodies to programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), have revolutionized the treatment of several types of malignancy, including head and neck carcinoma [3], hepatocellular carcinoma [4], esophageal carcinoma [5], colorectal carcinoma, [6] and NSCLC [7,8], and show superior median overall survival (OS) and long-term survival compared to standard chemotherapy for some special groups [9,10].