Footnotes

• Handling editor Runjan Chetty.

• YMA and IA contributed equally.

• Contributors SV conceived the study, analysed the data, wrote and drafted the manuscript. YMA and IA collected and analysed the data and also wrote the manuscript. FSC, SA and FS critically appraised the data and wrote the manuscript.

• Funding This study was supported by the student grant number (#QUST-1-CMED-2018-10) provided by the College of Medicine, Qatar University. The preliminary data from the study were presented at the XXXII Congress of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP), October 2018, Amman, Jordan.

• Competing interests SV serves as an editor-in-chief of the Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences, an academic editor at PLOS One, an associate editor at Cancer Cell International and an editorial board member of the Annals of Translational Medicine. SA is an editor-in-chief of the Journal of Drug Targeting. FS is a managing editor of the Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences. The other authors declare no competing interests.

• Patient consent for publication Not required.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.