CD44 and cancer: On the other hand, Mclean et al. discovered cancer-associated MSCs (CA-MSCs), which are determined by the expression of CD44, CD73, and CD90, exhibited the upregulation of the TGF-β superfamily/bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family [53], and MSCs harbored the potential to differentiate into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) at latter passages [54–57].