Resumen de Recommendations for the use of biomarkers for head and neck cancer, including salivary gland tumours: a consensus of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology and the Spanish Society of Pathology

José Manuel Trigo Pérez, Mónica García-Cosío Piqueras, Almudena García Castaño, Montserrat Gomà Gallego, Ricard Mesía Nin, E. Ruiz Bravo-Burguillos, Ainara Soria, Paola Castillo Fernandez, Irene Braña Garcia, Margarita Alberola Ferranti

• The treatment of head and neck and salivary gland tumours is complicated and evolves constantly. Prognostic and predictive indicators of response to treatment are enormously valuable for designing individualized therapies, which justifies their research and validation. Some biomarkers, such as p16, Epstein–Barr virus, PD-L1, androgen receptors and HER-2, are already used routinely in clinical practice. These biomarkers, along with other markers that are currently under development, and the massively parallel sequencing of genes, ensure future advances in the treatment of these neoplasms. In this consensus, a group of experts in the diagnosis and treatment of tumours of the head and neck and salivary glands were selected by the Spanish Society of Pathology (Sociedad Española de Anatomía Patológica—SEAP) and the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica—SEOM) to evaluate the currently available information and propose a series of recommendations to optimize the determination and daily clinical use of biomarkers.