Because two‐thirds of our population had altered TNFSF15 alleles and the expression of altered TNFSF15 alleles in the upper aerodigestive (oesophagus) mucosa was higher than that of normal alleles, 515 patients with HNSCC from the TCGA database were divided into high (66.6%, 353/514) and low (33.4%, 172/515) TNFSF15 expression groups based on expression levels. This evidence concerns the gene TNFSF15 and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.