NRF2 is highly expressed in many cancers (Rojo de la Vega et al., 2018; Dodson et al., 2019; Anandhan et al., 2020), including HNSCC cells, and NRF2 knockout can reduce GSH levels in HNSCC cells (Wang et al., 2017; Ramesh et al., 2020). This evidence concerns the gene NFE2L2 and cancer.