Subsequent analysis to identify the markers that could distinguish patients of poor prognosis in early stage tongue cancer cohort of TCGA (stage I-II; n = 47) identified a three gene panel that independently demarcated patients with poor overall survival; MTFR1 (identified in the overall tongue cancer cohort) (p = 8.450e-3), C8ORF33 (Chromosome 8 open reading frame 33, p = 4.285e-3) and OTUD6B (OTU domain containing 6B, p = 3.293e-3) (Table 2; Fig 3D–3F; S6B File), although the marker combination was not significant. Here, OTUD6B is linked to tongue cancer.