In vitro studies showed that EGCG inhibited cisplatin-induced ROS, ERK1/2 and STAT1 activation in UMSCC head and neck cancer cells, but had little effect on cisplatin-induced inhibition of STAT3, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL levels or the observed increases in cleaved caspase-3. The gene discussed is BCL2L1; the disease is head and neck cancer.