NANOG and head and neck cancer: Nanog, a differentiated homeobox (HOX) domain protein that was first discovered in ESCs, has typical self-renewal and multipotent transcriptional regulatory functions.86 Although Nanog is silenced in normal somatic cells, abnormal expression has been reported in human cancers, such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, brain cancer, colon cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer, and gastric cancer.86–90 Compared to levels in benign tissues, Nanog messenger RNA (mRNA) is elevated in malignant tumors.