Subsequently, combined with the clinical information of 546 HNSCC patients from TCGA database, a 12-gene prognostic risk model was established (FEPHX3, SPINK7, FCRLA, MASP1, ZNF541, CD5, BEST2 and ZAP70 were down-regulation, ADPRHL1, DYNC1I1, KCNG1 and LINC00460 were up-regulation) using multivariate Cox regression and LASSO regression analysis. Here, ZNF541 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.