In long-term culture, these induced cells maintained their stem-like phenotype as characterized by: i) the ability to survive under harsh conditions created by the media without serum and with EGF, bFGF, LIF, and NSF-1, in which non-stem-like cancer cells are not able to survive; ii) sphere-shaped morphology; and iii) longer survival in laminin-coated dishes. The gene discussed is LIF; the disease is cancer.