To determine if autophagy-defects in HNSCC are existent, RNA was isolated from a panel of 17 HNSCC tumor biopsies of the ARCON trial [22] and screened for mutations and expression in MAP1LC3B/LC3B, ATG3, ATG5, ATG2B, BECN1, SQSTM1/p62 (sequestosome 1), ATG12 and ATG9B (mutations identified in other cancer types or high frequency of nucleotide repeats). This evidence concerns the gene ATG5 and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.