Indirectly validated targets of the DE lncRNAs between Normal × Tumor are involved in a diversity of biological processes (Fig. 3A). For instance, it was noticed an overrepresentation of adhesion molecules, such as downregulation of CDH16, which was already reported as a potential marker for PTC43. Along with CDH16, many other cadherins were identified as validated targets of DE lncRNAs, such as CDH2, CDH3, CDH4, CDH6, CDH11 and CDH24 (Supplemental Table S8). Another highly enriched biological process was the regulation of programmed cell death (Fig. 3A), represented by the upregulation of the antiapoptotic SOX444 and TP6345 in PTC samples. Enriched pathways (Fig. 3B) as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, focal adhesion and MAPK pathways were already reported in the first study of DE lncRNA with paired Normal × PTC samples36, providing further support for future research. It was observed an enrichment of MAPK-related genes, represented in our results by upregulation, in the tumor samples, of TGB1, TGFB2 and TGFBR1 that were shown to activate the MAPK pathway46. Interestingly, pathway enrichment analysis of indirectly validated microRNAs (Fig. 3D) demonstrated a convergent tendency to genes involved in cancer, MAPK pathway and focal adhesion, which were also observed with the validated mRNAs.