Some current reports rather support the hypothesis that activation of NOTCH1 in HNSCC only recapitulates its usual biological function which is to regulate a program of gene expression associated with very early differentiation, or transit amplifying cells, committed to undergo epithelial (or squamous) differentiation, rather than having a strong impact on EMT or cancer stem cell maintenance (reviewed in [88]). Here, NOTCH1 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.