Initially, it has been suggested that tumor cells may undergo pyroptosis induced by chemotherapy in a caspase-3-dependent manner, and GSDME-mediated pyroptosis has been correlated with the response of oral cancer to chemotherapy (Wang et al., 2022; Rioja-Blanco et al., 2022; Zi et al., 2023); GSDMD and caspase-1 are also reported to implicate in mediating pyroptosis which regulates the progression of HNSCC (Zhang et al., 2020; Wang & Liu, 2023; Yue et al., 2019). The gene discussed is GSDMD; the disease is head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.