In the past year, clinical trials have provided important information on strategies to decrease treatment-associated toxicities in patients with head and neck cancer. In addition, the FDA approved the first innmunotherapeutic agents for patients with recurrent and/or metastatic disease, based on the observation of durable responses to pembrolizumab in a phase lb trial, and demonstration of improved survival and quality of life with the use of nivolumab versus chemotherapy in a phase III trial.