High leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) expression caused by an inflammatory condition was reported to promote tumor proliferation and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in various malignant tumors, but those effects have not been studied in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC) and the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here, LGR5 is linked to cancer.