To the best of our knowledge, with the exception of TGFB1, which has been proposed to be correlated with the clinical outcomes of HPV+ oropharynx squamous cell carcinoma patients after radiotherapy (Tao et al., 2018), none of the other genes have been previously reported with regard to HNSCC development and patient prognosis. This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.