the down regulation of miR-17-92 family may be advantageous for cancer development: as previously mentioned, loss-of-heterozygosis at miR-17-92 locus (13q31.3) has been observed in multiple tumour types (including HCC) [45]; moreover, the down regulation of another member of the cluster, miR-17, has been reported to contribute to breast cancer development through over expression of its target, the oncogene AIB1 [48]. Here, NCOA3 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.