We attempted to identify HIF-1α-regulated quiescent stem-like tumor cells in astrocytoma tissues using the following immunophenotypes as indices: SOX2+ HIF-1α+ RNApII-S2P-/low or NANOG+ HIF-1α+ RNApII-S2P-/low. This evidence concerns the gene SOX2 and astrocytoma (excluding glioblastoma).