Characterization of cervical cancer stem-like cells by oncogene expression studies and specific silencing of E6 and E7 in the present study and earlier investigations by others34 demonstrated essential role of E6 but not E7 in cervical cancer stem cells that can result in a loss of cell growth and self-renewal ability, the properties which are strongly linked to GLI signaling in other epithelial malignancies35, 36. Here, GLI1 is linked to cervical carcinoma.