The heatmap of the top 20 hyper and hypomethylated promoters in leukoplakia and OSCC revealed a methylation signature different from normal, including promoters of well-established cancer genes such as PPP1R1C, EID3, DLEC1, HOXA7, CDKN1B, MIR9-1, TSHZ3, FAM84A and CDH4 in leukoplakia. This evidence concerns the gene TSHZ3 and cancer.