Table 2 MicroRNAs commonly affected in cancer and their targets

miR-17 ~ 92 cluster [19–36]

OG/TS

Lung, breast, pancreas, colon, BCL, retinoblastoma, glioblastoma

HIF-1α (hypoxia response)

PTEN, E2F1-3, TNF-α, RAB14 (cell proliferation)

BIM, TGFBR2 (cell survival)

TSP1, CTGF (tumor angiogenesis)

miR-21 [37–53]

OG

Lung, breast, lymphoma, glioblastoma

PTEN, SPRY1, SPRY2, (cell proliferation)

PDCD4, APAF1 (cell survival)

TPM-1, TPM-3, RECK (metastasis)

miR-155 [26, 42, 54–61]

OG

Lung, lymphoma, breast

FOXO3A, SHIP1, SOCS1 (cell survival)

RhoA (metastasis)

miR-221 or miR-222 [45, 62–67]

OG

Lung, glioblastoma

KIT, p27, PUMA (cell survival)

PTEN (cell proliferation)

let-7[68, 69, 78–83]

TS

Lung, lymphoma, gastric, prostate, breast, ovarian

KRAS, NRAS, CDC25A, c-MYC (cell proliferation)

HMGA2 (metastasis)

miR-34 [84–88, 91–93]

TS

Lung, lymphoma, pancreas, colon, neuroblastoma, glioblastoma

CDC25A, CDK4, CDK6, c-MYC (cell proliferation)

MET (metastasis)

BCL2 (cell survival)

miR-15/16 [94–98]

TS

CLL, multiple myeloma, prostate, pancreas

BCL2 (cell survival)

CDC2, JUN, FGF-2, CCND-1 (cell proliferation)

miR-200 [99–102]

TS

Breast, renal, gastric, bladder

ZEB1, ZEB2 (cell differentiation and metastasis)

miR-181 [103, 104]

TS

Glioma, lymphoma

TCL1 (cell survival)

miR-29 [105–112]

TS

CLL, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast

MCL1, TCL1 (cell survival)

DNMT1 (gene expression)