VIM and cancer: Previous studies demonstrated that radioresistant cancer cells surviving from radiation commonly display an EMT phenotype with an upregulation of mesenchymal markers (e.g., vimentin and N-cadherin) and a downregulation of epithelial markers (e.g., E-cadherin), leading to augmented capacity for cancer cell self-renewal and invasive properties and eventually promoting tumor aggressiveness (10, 11).