Introduction Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) belong to the most frequent immune cells in the tumor microenvironment of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). They can undergo an anti- or pro-tumoral polarization, the latter often referred to as M2-like activation. Because existing data are either not consistent, not well-connected to clinicopathological parameters or lack a detailed spatial distribution, we aimed to get more insight into the relevance of this immune cell population