APBA1 and neoplasm: Here, in this study, we analyzed the aberrant promoter methylation profile of HNSCC using seven important tumor-related pathway genes (p16, DAPK, GSTP1, ECAD, RASSF1, MLH1 and BRCA1) and three methylated loci (MINT1, MINT2 and MINT31) in the high cancer incidence zone of Northeast India.