Zhao C, Li Y, Hu X, et al. Onco Targets Ther. 2020;13:11827–11838.

At the author’s request, we, the Editors and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy, have retracted the following article.

Following publication of the article, the authors raised concerns regarding the duplication of images from Figures 2 and 4 with images from other unrelated articles. Specifically,

Images for Figure 2C have been duplicated with images for Figure 2D from Fu Y, Cai L, Lei X, et al. RETRACTED ARTICLE: Circular RNA ABCB10 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression by increasing HMG20A expression by sponging miR-670-3p. Cancer Cell Int. 2019;19:338. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12935-019-1055-z; Figure 3B from Xing Z, Zhang Z, Gao Y, et al. The lncRNA LINC01194/miR-486-5p Axis Facilitates Malignancy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer via Regulating CDK4. Onco Targets Ther. 2020;13:3151-3163. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S235037 and Figure 3H from Peng Y, Li X, Liu H, et al. RETRACTED ARTICLE: microRNA-18a from M2 Macrophages Inhibits TGFBR3 to Promote Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Progression and Tumor Growth via TGF-β Signaling Pathway. Nanoscale Res Lett. 2020;15:196. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-020-03416-8. Images for Figure 4B have been duplicated with images for Figure 5C from Zhang D, Ma Y, Ma Z, et al. Circular RNA SMARCA5 suppressed non-small cell lung cancer progression by regulating miR-670-5p/RBM24 axis. Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica. 2020;52:1071-1080. https://doi.org/10.1093/abbs/gmaa099.

The authors were cooperative and explained that after becoming aware of the concerns, they evaluated the study and were unable to verify the validity of the reported findings or explain how the images came to be duplicated. As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, the authors found it necessary to retract the article and we, the Editors and Publisher, agree with this decision.

We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and COPE guidelines.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.