TERT and neoplasm: Several studies have, indeed, reported that TERT mRNA levels and telomerase activity are higher in poorly differentiated SCC [63, 126, 143, 146, 166–169], increase with tumor stage [63, 131, 142, 166], and are associated with lymph node involvement [63, 126, 131, 137, 139, 170] or extracapsular extension of lymph node metastases [125].