NANOG and pancreatic neoplasm: In 2016, Gao and collaborators found that the lncRNA LINC-ROR (long intergenic non-protein coding RNA-regulator of reprogramming) was able to act as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) toward miR-145, activating the de-repression of the stem transcription factor Nanog, and thus decreasing the tumorigenic ability of pancreatic cancer stem cells (as defined by a CD24+/cD44+/ CD133+ phenotype) [110] (Table 2).