Abstract
The Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals officially retracts the article entitled, “Mortal Obligate RNA Transcript Inhibits Cancer Cell Invasion and Migration in Lung Adenocarcinoma by Downregulating miRNA-223,” by Yunjian Huang, Qingyang Zhuang, and Wu Zhuang. (Cancer Biother Radiopharm 2020;35(5):345–350; doi: 10.1089/cbr.2019.3244).
The corresponding author, Wu Zhuang, contacted the Editor-in-Chief to request a correction to Figures 5A and 5B and stated:
“Recently, during a self-examination of the paper, I discovered errors in Figures 5A and 5B. Further investigation revealed that the H522 cells presented in Figure 5A were mistakenly used to represent the H23 cells in Figure 5B. This mistake occurred as a result of confusion among team members during the classification and selection of cell images, given the involvement of multiple individuals and the presence of various scattered images in the study. Consequently, the H522 image was erroneously duplicated in Figure 5A.”
Based on the authors' mishandling of image preparation, classifications, and presentation, the editorial leadership of the journal no longer has confidence in the validity of the study and denied the request to publish an erratum and determined an editorial retraction is necessary.
After being notified via email of the determination to retract the article, Dr. Wu Zhuang appealed the decision but was denied based on lack of certainty in the work.