Unraveling the TWIST between EMT and Cancer Stemness

Twist1 has a well-established role in inducing Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) to promote tumor invasion and metastasis and can also inhibit apoptosis and confer stemness. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Beck et al. (2015) now show that low levels of Twist1 are essential for tumor initiation, maintenance, and stemness independent of its EMT-inducing activity.