In this study, we identified PHF5A as the splicing factor for the DOCK5 variant in HNSCC and showed that PHF5A was highly expressed in HNSCC tissues, positively associated with T classifications and clinical stages in our clinical data, and related to lymph node metastasis and unfavourable prognosis in TCGA HNSCC data, which was consistent with previous findings in other types of cancer [26, 27]. This evidence concerns the gene DOCK5 and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.