A total of 5676 HNSCC TME cells from 17 qualified samples (HNSCC tissue and paraneoplastic lymph nodes) of the GSE103322 dataset (Additional file 1: Fig. S8A, See details in Additional file 3: Method 4) were clustered into 8 major cell types, including B cells (PECAM1, SLAMF7 and CD79A), classical-CAF (FAP, PDPN and COL1A2), Endothelial cells (PECAM1 and VWF), TAMM (CD14 and CD163), Malignant Epithelial cells (KRT14 and KRT17), Mast cells (MS4A2 and CMA1), Myogenic-CAF (ACTA2 and ACTG2) and T cells (CD2 and CD3D) (Additional file 1: Fig. S8B, C). This evidence concerns the gene PDPN and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.