NOTCH1 and cancer: For example, methylation of NOTCH1 was the strongest predictor of survival in this study (p = 0.0002), and was also identified as frequently mutated in head and neck tumors in Stransky et al. and Agrawal et al. Interestingly, truncating mutations in NOTCH1 indicate a tumor suppressor function as opposed to activating mutations seen in other cancers, and methylation of this gene also indicates a tumor suppressor function.