Oncol Lett 15: [Related article:] 4775–4780, 2018; DOI:
10.3892/ol.2018.7914
Following the publication of this paper, it was drawn
to the Editor's attention by a concerned reader that the ‘Control’
and ‘miR-NC’ data panels in Fig. 2B, showing the results of cell
invasion assay experiments, were overlapping, suggesting that these
data had been derived from the same original source, even though
the results from differently performed experiments were intended to
have been portrayed. An independent analysis of the data in this
paper in the Editorial Office subsequently revealed that the
‘Control’ and ‘miR-NC’ data panels showing the results of
scratch-wound assay data in Fig. 2A were also overlapping; western
blots in Figs. 2 and 5 appeared to have been duplicated, even
though one of the gel slices appeared to have been horizontally
flipped compared with the other; and finally, control western blots
featured in Fig. 3 were strikingly similar to data that
subsequently appeared in a paper written by different authors at
different research institutes in the journal Open Medicine.
Finally, another concerned reader drew the Editor's attention to
further overlaps of data in the western blots in Figs. 2B, 3B and
5B, including the apparently non-continuous presentation of certain
of the control GAPDH western blots in these figures.
Given the large number of anomalies that have been
identified with the assembly of the data in various of the figures
in this paper, the Editor of Oncology Letters has decided
that this paper should be retracted from the Journal on account of
a lack of confidence in the presented data. The authors were asked
for an explanation to account for these concerns, but the Editorial
Office did not receive a reply. The Editor apologizes to the
readership for any inconvenience caused.
