Until now, miR-451a was shown to be involved in several cancers, including glioma and gastric cancer, where it acts as a potential tumor suppressor affecting cell proliferation, invasion and apoptosis, perhaps via the regulation of the PI3K/AKT /mTOR signaling pathway (Nan et al., 2010; Riquelme et al., 2015). This evidence concerns the gene MTOR and cancer.