NANOG and neoplasm: Furthermore, we demonstrated that STIL is associated with FOXM1 (Fig. 4f), and that this association promotes tumor metastasis by activating FOXM1-regulated downstream genes (e.g., SLUG, NANOG, SOX2, POU5F1, SKP2, CDC25A, CCNB1, CCNB2, CDK1, PLK1, AURKA, AURKB and BUBR1) that are involved in the EMT, CS, and cell cycle (Figs. 3b, 4i, and Additional file 2: Fig. S7b).