Our results suggest that the BIRC5 gene might be the target gene of NF-κB, which can inhibit cell apoptosis by binding p65 and BIRC5 (Yan et al., 2013; Zeng et al., 2016), leading to HNSCC diffusion and poor prognosis; however, this needs to be verified by subsequent experiments. The gene discussed is BIRC5; the disease is head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.