Oncol Lett 7: [Related article:] 1381–1384, 2014; DOI:
10.3892/ol.2014.1964
Following the publication of the above paper, it was
drawn to the Editor's attention by a concerned reader that the
Transwell assay images shown in Fig. 2A on p. 1383 subsequently
appeared in another paper written by different authors that was
also published in Oncology Letters [Gu H, Li X, Zhou C, Wen
Y, Shen Y, Zhou L and Li J: Effects and mechanisms of blocking the
hedgehog signaling pathway in human gastric cancer cells. Oncol
Lett 9: 1997–2002, 2018], although larger fields of vision of the
images were presented in that paper, suggesting that that paper may
have been in possession of the original images. In addition, a
concern was raised by a different commentator that a pair of the
bands for the Gli1 data in Fig. 3 appeared to be non-contiguous
with the remainder of the bands in the gel, suggesting that this
figure may have been inappropriately edited.
Given that these issues have come to light, the
Editor of Oncology Letters has decided that this paper
should be retracted from the Journal on account of a lack of
confidence in the presented data. The authors were asked for an
explanation to account for these concerns, but the Editorial Office
did not receive a reply. The Editor apologizes to the readership
for any inconvenience caused.
