Boxberg M, et al. - Researchers undertook an exploration of the therapy-naïve oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cases with complete long-term follow-up and matched lymph node metastases for CD44 expression using immunohistochemistry. A connection was brought to light between CD44 with tumor aggressiveness and EMT along with the independent prognostic impact of CD44 in a subset of OSCC. This association highlighted the role of tumor cell stemness as a pivotal factor in malignant behaviour in this disease.