Abstract
Following the publication of this paper, it was drawn to the authors' attention by an interested reader that a row of the tumour images featured in Fig. 8A of the above paper were strikingly similar to those featured in Fig. 6A of an article appearing in Oncology Reports that had been published by a different research group at a different institution [Zhang L, Liang X and Li Y: Long non‑coding RNA MEG3 inhibits cell growth of gliomas by targeting miR‑93 and inactivating PI3K/AKT pathway. Oncol Rep 38: 2408‑2416, 2017]. The Editor asked the authors for an explanation to account for the appearance of strikingly similar data in their paper independently, although the authors proved to be uncontactable in this regard, and did not respond to various queries. The Editor has therefore taken an executive decision to retract this paper from International Journal of Oncology without the agreement of the authors. The Editor apologizes to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [the original article was published in International Journal of Oncology 51: 316‑326, 2017; DOI: 10.3892/ijo.2017.4006].