Spindle Cell Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Scalp Treated With Pembrolizumab Cisplatin and 5-Fluorouracil

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 13; no. 12; p. e20242
• Main Authors: Alzahrani, Ali M, Al Mutari, Bander, Alzahrani, Anas, Alkhodaidi, Abdelhafeeth, Yahya, Gaaem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Cureus Inc 07.12.2021; Cureus
• Subjects: Cancer; Case reports; Chemotherapy; Cytokeratin; FDA approval; Hospitals; Immunotherapy; Lymphatic system; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical imaging; Metastasis; Monoclonal antibodies; Oncology; Pathology; Patients; Proteins; Radiation therapy; Squamous cell carcinoma; Surgery; Targeted cancer therapy; pembrolizumab; scalp; cutaneous carcinosarcoma; immunotherapy; spindle cell carcinoma
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.20242

Cutaneous spindle cell squamous cell carcinoma (SpSCC) of the head and neck is a very rare tumor. It is an aggressive variant of squamous cell carcinoma. The usual treatment of the localized disease is surgery with or without radiotherapy. No standard treatment for metastatic disease although some case reports had reported the effectiveness of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade as a possible treatment. We are reporting a 57-year-old Arabic female presented with metastatic scalp spindle cell squamous carcinoma, who was treated with three lines of chemotherapy. She received pembrolizumab, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil for three cycles but did not respond, the pembrolizumab was dropped and we added cetuximab for three more cycles but did not respond also. She had a partial response to doxorubicin single agent as a third line. Our case showed resistance to pembrolizumab and cetuximab combined with chemotherapy regimens which are both considered as standard treatments for the classical squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, but there was a partial response to single-agent doxorubicin.