MTDH and head and neck cancer: Metadherin (MTDH), first identified in primary human fetal astrocytes by rapid subtraction hybridization and named AEG-1, is a well-known oncogene in various cancers, including head and neck cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma (Emdad et al., 2016; Robertson et al., 2018; Shen et al., 2021; Su et al., 2002; Yu et al., 2014; Zhu et al., 2017).