More and more lncRNAs have been found to play a role in the initiation and development of HNSCC, suggesting that they can be used as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets to provide more effective diagnosis, prognosis and treatment for HNSCC patients, such as HOTAIR, UCA1, FOXC1, AFAP1-AS1, et al. (Cossu et al., 2019; Wang S. et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020c). The gene discussed is AFAP1; the disease is head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.