The in vitro results showed that knock-down of SPRY4-IT1 suppressed the cell proliferation, colony formation, cell invasion and migration in HCC cell lines, and the results were in agreement with previous studies showing that knock-down of SPRY4-IT1 suppressed the cell proliferation, colony formation, cell invasion and migration in several types of cancers including colorectal cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, prostate cancer, glioma, gastric cancer, bladder cancer and breast cancer17–20. Here, SPRY4 is linked to colorectal cancer.