Furthermore, our finding that overexpression of CD109 in A431 cells leads to a significant decrease in SOX2 expression and a concomitant decrease of spheroid formation in these cells, supports the notion that CD109 plays a fundamental anti-cancer role in SCC cells, and that it mediates the anti-cancer effect of hBM-MSC-CM in SCC cells. The gene discussed is SOX2; the disease is cancer.