CSCs drive cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, recurrence and drug resistance (Chen et al., 2013), and express Nanog, CD133, CD90, SOX2, EpCAM, CD44, Klf4 and Oct4, some of which may functionally support liver CSC phenotypes like invasiveness and chemoresistance (Yamashita and Wang, 2013). The gene discussed is NANOG; the disease is cancer.