SPI1 and neoplasm: We speculate that miR-27a and miR-24 may serve at a ‘standby state’, which means they are ready for the manipulation by different cellular factors, as GATA-1 in erythropoiesis, c-MYC in tumour metastasis (33), Runx2 in osteoblast differentiation (28) and PU.1 in B-cell development (34).