The authors showed that Oct4-overexpressing CRC cells display stemness properties, such as sphere and cell colony formation, cell migration and chemotherapy resistance, as compared to parental cells; consistently, gene expression profile of Oct4high cells highlight the upregulation of stemness proteins (i.e., CD133, CD44, Snail, Sox2 and Nanog), IL-8 and IL-32, which both promote CRC progression in an autocrine fashion. Here, NANOG is linked to colorectal carcinoma.