NANOG and neoplasm: p-AKT enhances the expression of the main stemness-regulating transcription factors (NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX2), anti-apoptotic proteins, and HIF1A-mediated hypoxia, promoting self-renewal, tumor progression, chemoresistance and radioresistance (Li et al., 2016; Shin et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2021).