Machine Learning-assisted immunophenotyping of peripheral blood identifies innate immune cells as best predictor of response to induction chemo-immunotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma - knowledge obtained from the CheckRad-CD8 trial.

"the participant data are uploaded at zenodo platform ( https://zenodo org/records/10145138 )."

"Declaration of competing interest M.H. conflict of interest with Merck Serono (advisory role, speakers’ bureau, honoraria, travel expenses, research funding); MSD (advisory role, speakers’ bureau, honoraria, travel expenses, research funding); AstraZeneca (advisory role, speakers’ bureau, honoraria, travel expenses, research funding); Novartis (research funding); BMS (advisory role, speakers’ bureau, honoraria, travel expenses, research funding); Teva (travel expenses); Sanofi (advisory role, honoraria). M.E. conflict of interest with Diaceutics (employment, honoraria, advisory role, speakers’ bureau, travel expenses); Cepheid (research funding, advisory role); AstraZeneca (honoraria, advisory role, speakers’ bureau, travel expenses); Roche (honoraria, travel expenses); MSD (honoraria, speakers’ bureau); GenomicHealth (honoraria, advisory role, speakers bureau, travel expenses); Astellas (honoraria, speakers’ bureau); Janssen-Cilag (honoraria, advisory role, research funding, travel expenses); Stratifyer (research funding, patents). G.K. conflict of interest with BMS (advisory role); Lilly (advisory role); Roche (advisory role) S.L. conflict of interest with AstraZeneca (honoraria, advisory role); BMS (honoraria, advisory role, speakers’ bureau); MSD (honoraria, advisory role); Merck Serono (honoraria, speakers’ bureau); ISA-Pharmaceuticals (research funding) M.G.H. conflict of interest with Roche (stock); Varian (stock); Sanofi (stock); AstraZeneca (honoraria); BMS (honoraria, advisory role); MSD (honoraria, advisory role); Merck Serono (honoraria); Celgene (honoraria). B.T. conflict of interest with BMS (advisory role, honoraria); Merck Serono (advisory role, speakers’ bureau, honoraria); MSD (advisory role, speakers’ bureau, honoraria); Sanofi (advisory role, honoraria). A.Hi. conflict of interest with Roche (honoraria). A.H. conflict of interest with BMS (honoraria, advisory role); MSD (honoraria, advisory role); Roche (honoraria, advisory role, research funding); AstraZeneca (honoraria, advisory role, research funding); Boehringer Ingelheim (honoraria); Abbvie (honoraria); Cepheid (advisory role, research funding); Quiagen (advisory role); Janssen-Cilag (honoraria, advisory role, research funding); Ipsen (honoraria, advisory role); NanoString Technologies (advisory role, research funding, expert testimony); Illumina (advisory role); 3DHistech (advisory role); Diaceutics (advisory role); BioNTech (research funding). W.B. conflict of interest with BMS (advisory role); MSD (advisory role); Merck Serono (advisory role); Pfitzer (advisory role); AstraZeneca (advisory role). U.S.G. conflict of interest with AstraZeneca (advisory role, research funding); BMS (advisory role); MSD (research funding); MedUpdate (literature research and presentation activities), Dr. Sennewald Medizintechnik (travel expenses and advisory role), Merck (presentation activities). R.F. conflict of interest with MSD (honoraria, advisory role, research funding, travel expenses); Fresenius (honoraria); BrainLab (honoraria); AstraZeneca (honoraria, advisory role, research funding, travel expenses); Merck Serono (advisory role, research funding, travel expenses); Novocure (advisory role, speakers’ bureau, research funding); Sennewald (speakers’ bureau, travel expenses). The other authors declare no conflicts of interest. All other not listed authors do not have a conflict of Interest All other not listed authors do not have a conflict of Interest"

"The clinical trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT03426657). The leading institutional review board at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (number: 131_18 Az) and all institutional review boards approved the trial including the translational research program. All patients gave written informed consent before enrollment. The trial is an investigator-sponsored trial (IST)."