The silencing of Bmi1 expression in a pHGG patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) model decreased cell proliferation in vitro and inhibited tumor formation of both CD133-positive and CD133-negative subpopulations in vivo. However, gene expression profiling revealed a downregulation of different molecular targets of Bmi1 in CD133-positive compared to CD133-negative cells, which consisted of a novel set of core genes whose modulation impaired tumor initiation [62]. Here, BMI1 is linked to neoplasm.