Functional analysis on their target mRNAs, expressed in the investigated samples (Additional file 6: Table S5), revealed their involvement in pathways implicated in neurologic and endocrine cancers, such as glioblastoma multiforme, glioma and pancreatic adenocarcinoma signaling, together with others specifically involved in tumor development and progression, including epithelial adherens junctions, TGF-β, PTEN and NGF signalings (Fig. 4B). Here, NGF is linked to malignant endocrine neoplasm.