NANOG and renal cell carcinoma: In addition, Lichner et al. [59] isolated RCC spheres exhibiting CSC-like properties coupled to TGF-β-EMT axis, including clonogenicity, self-renewal capacity, tumorigenicity, the ability to differentiate to cell types of the tumor of origin as well as increased expression of stem cell-related transcription factors (Oct4, Nanog, Klf4 and LIN28).