Consistent with these in vitro findings, in vivo immunohistochemical analysis of oral SCC tumor samples, and correlation studies of publicly available HNSCC patient data for mRNA (cBioportal for Cancer Genomics) and proteomic (LinkedOmics) expression reveal that CD109 expression positively correlates with the activation of the IL6Rα/STAT3/NRF2 pathway. The gene discussed is CD109; the disease is head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.