Lei D, Hu G, Chen Y, Hao T, Gao Y, Luo F. Onco Targets Ther. 2020;13:11839–11848.

We, the Editors and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy, have retracted the published article.

Since publication, authors have contacted the journal regarding the correction of Figures 3A and 4B. Upon investigation, further concerns were identified by the publisher regarding image integrity in the following figures:

Additionally, this study has used HL-7702, SMMC-7721, and BEL-7402 which has been reported to be contaminated with HeLa cells.

When approached for an explanation, the authors explained that they were not unaware of the contamination of the SMMC-7721 cell line, but this was identified by the Editor prior to the publication. The authors removed most of the results related to this cell line, except for Figure 1E and 1F. Following review by both the publisher and the journal Editor, it was decided that the results of the study cannot be relied upon.

As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, we are therefore retracting the article. The authors have not agreed to retract the article.

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

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.