It is of interest, then, that increased expression of PKR (eIF2AK2), a kinase that phosphorylates eIF2α, and of eIF2A, the recruiter of alternate tRNAi, occur in a majority of head and neck cancers (TCGA dataset) and that they significantly correlate with poor survival of HNSCC patients (Figure 4). This evidence concerns the gene EIF2A and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.