Fig. 1From: The rationale for including immune checkpoint inhibition into multimodal primary treatment concepts of head and neck cancerThe afferent and efferent arms of adaptive tumor immunity. Tumor cells undergo apoptosis or necrosis, either spontaneously or after radio- or chemotherapy. Apoptotic bodies from tumor cells can be processed by dendritic cells. The antigen repertoire of dying cells is subsequently presented by dendritic cells via MHC molecules to T cells (the afferent arm of adaptive immune activation). T cells recognizing peptides by their T cell receptor (TCR) are activated and acquire cytolytic effector functionsBack to article page