NANOG and cancer: The results of our assessment of the mRNA levels of genes involved in cancer stemness and pluripotency in the OSCC cells demonstrated that compared with their expression in the ALDH− SCC4 or SCC25 cells, there was significantly increased expression levels of Oct4 (p < 0.01), Nanog (p < 0.01), Sox2 (p < 0.01), Notch (p < 0.01) and β-catenin (p < 0.01) in the ALDH+ cells (Fig. 1D).