Tumor samples were obtained from 127 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), 62 patients with NSCLC and 59 patients with malignant melanoma at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University (Guangzhou, China) between January 2006 and December 2010 were used for MHC-I and phospo-Ser616 DRP-1 staining, Spearman correlation and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. This evidence concerns the gene DNM1L and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.