[12][13][14] In the original publication which identified the action of miR15 and miR16 in the development of B-CLL, Calin and colleagues proposed that miR16 could be the targets with imperfect base pairing for 14 genes.

[18] miR16 has been shown to bind to a nine base pair to a complementary sequence in the 3' UTR region of BCL2, which is an anti-apoptotic gene involved in an evolutionarily conserved pathway in programmed cell death.

[20][21] Altered expression of microRNA-16 has been observed in cancer,[22][23][24] including malignancies of the breast,[25] colon[26][27], brain[28][29] , lung[30], lymphatic system[1][18][31][32], ovaries[33], pancreas[34] , prostate[35] and stomach.

[27][37][38] The fact that pathology is associated with a different expression profile has led to the proposal that disease specific biomarkers can provide potential targets for directed clinical intervention.

The fact that mir-16 microRNA loss is observed in a large proportion of cells indicates the change occurred early in cancer development[23] and a target for therapeutic intervention.