ERG and hepatocellular carcinoma: As shown in Fig. 2c, the statistical analysis indicated a negative correlation between the number of ERG-positive endothelial cells and the expression of miR-200b-3p in the HCC tissues (r = − 0.4836, p < 0.0001), suggesting that decreased miR-200b-3p expression in cancer tissue causes vascular hyperplasia in HCC tissues.