Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining of our in-house HNSCC cohort revealed that TXNDC12 staining intensity was significantly higher in patients with lymph node metastasis, advanced TNM stage or poorly differentiated carcinoma compared with their corresponding controls (Fig. 1m–p and Supplementary Table 2). Here, TXNDC12 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.