Interestingly, the 300 HNSCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) have a much lower long-term overall survival (10-year survival rate, 10% AXL high and 30% AXL low) [24] compared to our cohort (10-year survival rate, 53% AXL high and 42% AXL low). This evidence concerns the gene AXL and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.