In addition, even though TINCR was originally described as a lncRNA4,33,34, the presence of protein-disrupting mutations including, and most telling, initiating codon-disrupting single nucleotide substitutions, together with the antiproliferative phenotype of TINCR protein expression in HNSCC tumor cells strongly support that the tumor suppressor function of the TINCR gene is mediated by the TINCR ubiquitin-like microprotein. Here, TINCR is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.