RT-qPCR results (Figure 2A) indicated that the expression of miR-98 was evidently lower in the breast cancer tissues at I (n=36), II (n=53) or III (n=23) stages when compared with the adjacent normal tissues (P<0.05), while the HMGA2 mRNA expression exhibited a contrasting trend (P<0.05). Here, HMGA2 is linked to breast cancer.