Despite the fact that ARID1A is known to affect p53-p21 and AKT in order to suppress oncogenicity [18-20, 43], this study further shows that ARID1A trans-inactivates the Nanog/OCT4/Sox2 stemness genes; these are known, together with EpCAM tumor antigen, to be involved in the repression of both oncogenesis and stemness in HNSCC. Here, POU5F1 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.