The Spearman analysis revealed that SALL3 expression in 83 HNSCC cases and paired normal tissue was negatively correlated with P1 NMV (ρ = −0.1882, P = 0.0160), P2 NMV (ρ = −0.2835, P = 0.0019), and P3 NMV (ρ = −0.192, P = 0.0211) (Additional file 3: Figure S2A–C). The gene discussed is SALL3; the disease is head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.