Despite advances in multimodal treatment strategies, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, the five-year survival rate for HNSCC patients remains between 40 and 50%.1 The prognosis is particularly unfavorable for patients with recurrent or metastatic disease.2 Nowadays, precision medicine for HNSCC is restricted to the EGFR-specific inhibitor cetuximab and the immunotherapy agents nivolumab and pembrolizumab.3–5 Treatment with cetuximab benefits a minority of HNSCC patients despite harboring high EGFR gene amplification, and its effectiveness is often hindered by tumor resistance. The gene discussed is EGFR; the disease is neoplasm.