In particular, in laryngeal and pharyngolaryngeal cancer, high CD44 expression is strongly associated with worse T, N, and differentiation grade, as well as poorer 5-year overall survival rate; in addition, CD44 is involved in the development and progression of laryngeal lesions and it may help to predict the risk of transformation of the benign or precancerous lesions to cancer. The gene discussed is CD44; the disease is cancer.