HECW2 and cancer: miR-944 was found to negatively regulate KIAA1109 (Fig 5B), a gene newly associated with cancer risk and found to be recurrently mutated in pan-cancer studies [58, 59]; as well as HECW2 (Fig 5B), a ubiquitin ligase established as a direct target of miR-944 in cervical tumors [45].