The differential analysis of TCGA-HNSC transcriptome data showed that the expression levels of FTH1 and FTL1 in HNSCC samples were significantly higher than those in adjacent normal samples (Figs. 2A, S1A), which were also confirmed using paired sample analysis (Figs. 2B, S1B). Here, FTL is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.