Following the publication of this paper, it was drawn to the Editor's attention by a concerned reader that the colony formation assay data shown in Figs. 2, 4 and 8 were strikingly similar to data that had already appeared in another article written by different authors at different research institutes [Chen W, Wang J, Liu S, Wang S, Cheng Y, Zhou W, Duan C and Zhang C: MicroRNA‐361‐3p suppresses tumor cell proliferation and metastasis by directly targeting SH2B1 in NSCLC. This evidence concerns the gene SH2B1 and non-small cell lung carcinoma.