This study highlights a novel signaling cascade of miR-141/KLF12/Sp1/survivin in promoting anoikis resistance of ovarian metastatic cancer cells and suggests a unique molecular mechanism by which the intrinsic apoptotic pathway is impeded in ovarian cancer tumors by microRNA-mediated epigenetic regulation during ovarian cancer metastatic progression (Additional file 5: Figure S5). This evidence concerns the gene SP1 and ovarian carcinoma.