Although somewhat controversial, the presence of OCT4 mRNA in human cancer tissues and cell lines and its enrichment in CSCs have been supported by a wealth of literature, and the participation of OCT4 in various CSC functions such as its self-renewal and survival, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis, and drug resistance development is implicated from considerable OCT4 knockdown and overexpression-based studies12. The gene discussed is POU5F1; the disease is cancer.