Role of cancer stem-cell marker doublecortin-like kinase 1 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Current global cancer statistics place HNSCC as the sixth most common malignant disease worldwide [1]. Indeed, approximately 500,000 patients are diagnosed annually [1]. Generally, there are two different treatment options for advanced stage HNSCC: either surgical resection followed by irradiation or primary chemoradiotherapy. Despite the plethora of clinical studies in HNSCC, the prognosis has not improved substantially enough over the last decades [2,3]. To improve the prognosis, there is an urgent need to find novel markers to stratify patients, and to thereby identify high-risk patients requiring more specialized treatment.

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