About the Authors

Catalin Vasilescu

Contributed equally to this work with: Catalin Vasilescu, Simona Rossi

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Fundeni Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

Simona Rossi

Contributed equally to this work with: Catalin Vasilescu, Simona Rossi

Affiliation Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Masayoshi Shimizu

Affiliation Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Stefan Tudor

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Fundeni Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

Angelo Veronese

Affiliation Department of Experimental and Diagnostic Medicine, Interdepartmental Center for Cancer Research, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Manuela Ferracin

Affiliation Department of Experimental and Diagnostic Medicine, Interdepartmental Center for Cancer Research, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Milena S. Nicoloso

Affiliation Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Elisa Barbarotto

Affiliation Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Monica Popa

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Fundeni Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

Oana Stanciulea

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Fundeni Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

Michael H. Fernandez

Affiliation Department of Hematopathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Dan Tulbure

Affiliation Department of Anesthesiology, Fundeni Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

Carlos E. Bueso-Ramos

Affiliation Department of Hematopathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Massimo Negrini

Affiliation Department of Experimental and Diagnostic Medicine, Interdepartmental Center for Cancer Research, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

George A. Calin

gcalin@mdanderson.org

Affiliation Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CV GC. Performed the experiments: SR MS AV MF MN EB MHF. Analyzed the data: CV SR MF MN EB MN GC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ST MP OS DT CEBR. Wrote the paper: CV SR GC.