Lai K, et al. - In oropharyngeal and oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the association of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B (LC3B) expression with prognosis was studied. Researchers also looked at the impact of LC3B expression on human papillomavirus (HPV) status in oropharyngeal SCC. The importance of autophagy in oropharyngeal and oral cavity SCC was reflected by the observed correlation of high LC3B expression with poor prognosis in these malignancies. For oropharyngeal SCC, but not for oral cavity SCC patients, there seems to be utility of high LC3B expression as an independent prognostic marker, which highlights the existence of biological differences between these malignancies. Risk of a poor outcome was suggested particularly for oropharyngeal SCC patients with negative HPV status and high LC3B expression.