CD44 and cancer: We observed a significant increase in the expression of cancer stem cell markers, including CD44, VEGFA, ITGB1, ALDH1A3, SOX9 and NECTIN4 [18,19], and enrichment in stemness-related pathways, such as the hedgehog, PI3K-AKT-mTOR, and WNT signaling pathways (Figure 2i and Figure S4a).