The role of NSD1 inactivation in the development and treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma

Project Narrative: Overcoming the grim 5-year survival rate of HNSCC patients, which is currently less than 50%, requires the development of patient-specific therapeutic strategies. My proposal will examine this possibility through molecular characterization of a previously unappreciated subgroup of HNSCC, defined by mutation in histone- modifying enzyme NSD1. We anticipate that the outlined experiments will broaden our current understanding of HNSCC patient responses to and subgroup-specific efficacy of cisplatin-based chemotherapy and immunotherapy.