Durvalumab Before Surgery in Treating Patients With Oral Cavity or Oropharynx Cancer

Inclusion Criteria

• •Histologically or cytologically confirmed HNSCC of the oral cavity (OC; more than 90% patients have HPV negative cancer) or oropharynx (about 60-80% of patient have HPV positive cancer)
• •Presence of radiologically of clinically documented disease. All radiology studies must be performed within 28 days prior to registration
• •Any stage, considered candidates for surgery and planned for surgery either by robotic or by standard surgical technique
• •Documentation of HPV tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (resulted or pending)
• •Willing to provide consent for an additional tissue biopsy for research purposes, to allow a part of their surgical tumor tissue to be utilized for research (in case tumor tissue has not already been saved in the tumor tissue bank), and to donate samples of blood and saliva collected weekly through the treatment
• •All patients must have provided informed consent for correlative studies
• •Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0, 1 or 2
• •Patients must have no prior exposure to immune-mediated therapy, including anti- cytotoxic T-lymphocyte protein 4 (CTLA-4), anti-programmed cell death 1, anti-programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1), or anti-programmed cell death ligand 2 antibodies, excluding therapeutic anticancer vaccines
• •At least 1 lesion, not previously irradiated, that can be accurately measured at baseline as \> or = 10 mm in the longest diameter (except lymph nodes, which must have a short axis \> or = 15 mm) with CT or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or clinical measurement and that is suitable for accurate repeated measurements as per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) 1.1 guidelines
• •Previous surgery is permitted provided that a minimum of 28 days (4 weeks) have elapsed between any major surgery and date of registration, and that wound healing has occurred
• •Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) \>= 1.5 x 10\^9/L
• •Platelet count \>= 100 x 10\^9/L
• •Hemoglobin \>= 9.0 g/dL
• •Serum bilirubin =\< 1.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN) (institutional upper limit of normal)
• •Total bilirubin is less than or equal to ULN, except the case in which the elevated total bilirubin is not a sign of liver disease, such as the Gilbert Syndrome, in which case a Total Bilirubin less than or equal to 2X ULN is acceptable.
• •Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) =\< 2.5 x ULN
• •Serum creatinine clearance (CL) \> 40 mL/min by the Cockcroft-Gault formula or by 24-hour urine collection for determination of creatinine clearance
• •Female subjects must either be of non-reproductive potential (ie, post-menopausal by history: \>= 60 years old and no menses for \>= 1 year without an alternative medical cause; OR history of hysterectomy, OR history of bilateral tubal ligation, OR history of bilateral oophorectomy) or must have a negative serum pregnancy test upon study entry
• •In accordance with National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG) policy, protocol treatment is to begin within 2 working days of patient registration
• •Written informed consent and any locally-required authorization (e.g., Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act \[HIPAA\] in the United States of American \[USA\], European Union \[EU\] Data Privacy Directive in the EU) obtained from the subject prior to performing any protocol-related procedures, including screening evaluations
• •Age 18 years or older at time of study entry.
• •Subject is willing and able to comply with the protocol for the duration of the study including undergoing treatment and scheduled visits and examinations including follow up