RESUMO
Immunotherapy has achieved objective response rates of 20%-30% in patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but fewer people are benefiting. Studies have shown that patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma carrying high expression of programmed death-1/programmed death-ligand 1 and/or high tumor mutation burden have a significant response to immunotherapy. Biomarkers of the tumor microenvironment, especially tumor infiltrating lymphocyte, are abundant in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, varying from different Epstein-Barr virus states, which can also play a predictive role of immunotherapy efficacy. Other biomarkers, such as mismatch repair-deficient, have a low incidence in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and limited predictive power. Combined detection of different types of immunotherapeutic biomarkers is more helpful to identify suitable populations for immunotherapy.