We previously demonstrated that miR‐148a inhibits the early relapse of CRC and resulted in reduced tumour growth in animal model of CRC11 and that VEGF can promote early relapse.27 In 2013, Xu et  al demonstrated that down‐regulation of miR‐148a activated the ERK signalling pathway to increase HIF‐1α and VEGF expression as well as tumour growth and angiogenesis in breast cancer cell lines.9 Similarly, we demonstrated that overexpression of miR‐148a can down‐regulate pERK to inhibit HIF‐1α and VEGF secretion in colon cancer cell lines. Here, HIF1A is linked to malignant colon neoplasm.