In the present study, cells from the AME tumour islands and the AME-hTERT lineage showed nuclear and cytoplasmic expression of SALL4, corroborating the marking pattern found by other studies in oral squamous cell carcinoma that suggests that this protein plays an important role in the progression of oral cancer and may serve as a potential therapeutic target [36–38]. Here, SALL4 is linked to oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.