Abstract: Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is one of the cancers with the highest incidence rate in the world. Due to the presence of postoperative recurrence and resistance to some chemotherapeutics after the surgery, the prognosis of advanced HNSCC patients is not optimistic. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the efficiency of chemotherapeutics for HNSCC and the prognosis of HNSCC patients. Recent studies have found that ferroptosis has regulatory effect on the growth and proliferation of some types of tumor cells, reducing drug resistance in tumor treatment to a certain extent, and showing great potential in the prevention and treatment of tumors. Therefore, this article will summarize the anti-tumor mechanism of ferroptosis and the current research progress in HNSCC, providing new evidence for the treatment of HNSCC.