Zhu X, Luo W, Liang W, et al. Onco Targets Ther. 2016;9:7493—7501.
The Editor-in Chief and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy wish to retract the published article.
Concerns were raised that images shown in Figure 4A of the published article appeared to have been duplicated with images shown in Figure 2d of the article ‘Correlations between chromobox homolog 8 and key factors of epithelial–mesenchymal transition in hepatocellular carcinoma’ published in Cancer Cell International (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12935-019-1063-z). Specifically, it appears the following images may have been duplicated:
Figure 4A PANC-1 Invasion shGFP appears duplicated with Figure 2d SK-Hep-1 Invasion shCBX8-3#
Figure 4A PANC-1 Migration shGFP appears duplicated with Figure 2d SK-Hep-1 Invasion shGFP
Figure 4A PANC-1 Migration shMAZ-2# appears duplicated with Figure 2d SK-Hep-1 Invasion shCBX8-1#
The editor was concerned the articles were published three years apart and the article published in OncoTargets and Therapy described a study investigating pancreatic carcinoma, while the article published in Cancer Cell International described a study investigating hepatocellular carcinoma. There were also concerns it appeared the same images were used to show results for two different cell lines, PANC-1 and SK-Hep-1.
The authors could not provide a satisfactory explanation for why it appeared the same images had been used to show results from two different cell lines. The authors were also unable to provide satisfactory raw data for their study and the editor determined the studies finding were no longer valid.
The authors wish to apologise for this error.
Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.