Rot S, et al. - Researchers studied 78 frozen tumor samples from adult oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) patients using quantitative real-time TaqMan PCR analysis to thoroughly determine the biological function of three splice variants of LGR5 (LGR5Δ5, LGR5Δ8 and LGR5Δ5–8). Observations revealed a significant association of elevated level of tumoral LGR5Δ5 mRNA, but not LGR5FL, LGR5Δ8 or LGR5all mRNA, with a poor prognosis for the overall and disease-specific survival of OSCC patients. Additionally, all LGR5 transcript variants, mainly through activating the Wnt-signalling pathway, are suggested to be involved in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process.