Not only differentiated radio-resistant stem cell-like subpopulations of A172 cancer cells evidenced immunoreactivity for hematopoietic stem cell surface markers (including CD133, CD117, CD71, and CD45) and nestin, but they also were able to differentiate into GFAP-positive astrocyte-like cells, MBP-positive myelin-like cells and MAP2ab-positive neuron-like cells (Fig. 6). The gene discussed is NES; the disease is cancer.