Low PDCD4 level was associated with moderately/poorly differentiated head and neck cancers (OR 4.25, 95% CI 1.87–9.66) [20, 21] and digestive system cancers (OR 2.87, 95% CI 1.84–4.48) [15, 23, 25–27] (Fig. 3a). Here, PDCD4 is linked to head and neck cancer.