MIF and neoplasm: Quantitative real-time PCR analysis of 40 paired OSCC tumor and adjacent normal tissue samples revealed that the transcript levels of HMGA2 and MIF were significantly elevated in OSCC tumor specimens compared with adjacent normal tissues (48 ± 75 vs. 1 ± 1.5 copy/ 105 GAPDH copy, P < 0.001 and 905 ± 965 vs. 562 ± 438 copy/ 103 GAPDH copy, P = 0.025, respectively; Fig. 4A).