Retraction: Downregulation of long non-coding RNA ANRIL suppresses lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis in colorectal cancer

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This article has been retracted: Oncotarget has concluded its investigation of this paper. Our concerns include internal duplication and overlaps with unrelated papers from different institutions. Specifically, we found that Figure 11, panels B and C, contain multiple duplicate tumor images and the b-actin image in Figure 4B overlaps with the b-actin panel in Figure 10. Moreover, Figure 6, illustrating invasion assay data, has duplicated panels found in two 2015 papers, in Figures 7, 11, and 12 of [1] and Figure 8 of [2]. In addition, all the panels of the tube formation assay in Figure 7 are duplicates of panels in Figure 3A of an earlier published, unrelated paper [3]. The migration assay images in Figure 8 also found in unrelated paper [4] and in Figures 5 and 6 from an already retracted article [5]. The Western blot images of VEGF-C in Figure 10 are duplicates of unrelated western blot images in earlier published papers [6, 7, 8] and all Western blot images in Figure 15A are duplicates from Figure 5F of [9].

Following Oncotarget’s initial inquiry regarding instances of image duplication, the first author, Zhenqiang Sun, acknowledged “two small errors in the paper” and wished to make corrections. However, the journal has since confirmed many additional instances of image duplication and notified all authors. We informed the authors that a retraction would be issued if they failed to respond to these concerns, but we received no reply. Therefore, the Editorial decision was made to retract this paper.

Original article: Oncotarget. 2016; 7:47536–47555. 47536-47555. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.9868