NT5E and cancer: Xie et al. reported that miR-30a was down-regulated in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues and cell lines compared with normal rectal tissues and cells, while overexpression of miR-30a in vitro inhibited proliferation of CRC cells and promoted apoptosis of cancer cells; additionally, they validated that miR-30a can bind to the cancer-related ecto-5′-nucleotidase (CD73) gene and further revealed that overexpression of CD73 could rescue miR-30a-induced inhibition of CRC cell proliferation [87].