CD44 and cancer: As cell adhesion molecules and numerous transcription factors are involved in invasion and metastasis in various cancers, we then performed qRT-PCR to monitor the expression of cell adhesion molecules and transcription factors that have been confirmed to be implicated in tumor migration and invasion (such as Snail1, Snail2, Twist1, fibronectin1[FN1], Integrin, CD44, ICAM-1).