In the case of ZNF132, methylation of two promoter CpG loci also showed significantly increased DNA methylation in HNSCC tumors compared with matching non-tumour tissue from the same patient (cg13877915: 0.80 ± 1.38 (tumour) versus − 1.72 ± 1.20 (non-tumour), p < 0.001), and cg19776201: − 0.93 ± 1.18 (tumour) versus − 3.73 ± 0.67 (non-tumour), p < 0.001). Here, ZNF132 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.