Analysis in laryngopharyngeal cohort also identified markers of early stage disease with PNI/ALI which included MFN1, PAK2, PIK3CA, FXR1 (differentials), PRRC2B and CBLL1 (with prognostic efficacy), all of which were previously identified to play a major role in head and neck oncogenesis as well as in other cancers [45–52] EPS8, identified in ECS- laryngopharyngeal patients in this study, is known to be involved in the proliferation apoptosis, adhesion and migration in other cancers including HNSCC [53–56]. Here, PIK3CA is linked to cancer.