Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of publicly available expression data from two MPNST patient cohorts, Jessen_cohort (GEO: GSE41747) and Kolberg_cohort (GEO: GSE66743) [27, 28], revealed HMGA2 as one of the top significantly enriched oncogenes in MPNSTs compared with that in normal nerves or NF1 neurofibromas (Fig. 1a and b); however, there was no significant difference in HMGA1 expression among nerve, neurofibroma and MPNST tissues (Additional file 1: Figure S1A). Here, HMGA1 is linked to plexiform neurofibroma.