PTEN and thyroid gland carcinoma: However, this may be an oversimplification, the silencing of PTEN by miR-92b-3p (direct effect) and miR-15b-5p (indirect effect via EGFR) may contribute to tumor susceptibility, since reduced PTEN levels have been observed in several tumors, such as colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and thyroid cancers (Correia et al., 2014; Bermúdez Brito et al., 2015).