Oncol Rep 39: [Related article:] 2114-2126, 2018; DOI:
10.3892/or.2018.6297
Following the publication of this paper, it was
drawn to the authors’ attention by an interested reader that Fig.
6D contained images featuring overlapping data, which reportedly
had been derived under different experimental conditions.
Subsequently, further issues of data duplication were brought to
light by another interested reader concerning the above article;
first, certain of the images showing colony-forming assays in Fig.
4D were strikingly similar to images that had appeared in a
previous publication by the same research group, and secondly, a
couple of instances of data duplication were identified among the
histopathological images presented within Fig. 7D.
After having considered the various issues that have
been brought to light with this paper, together with an appeal from
the authors that a Corrigendum be published, the Editor of
Oncology Reports has ruled that the article should be
retracted from the publication on account of a lack of overall
confidence in the presented data. Note that the authors were not in
agreement that the number of errors reported and identified were
sufficient to merit the retraction of the article. Additionally,
the authors carefully checked the raw data and drew a conclusion
that the final scientific conclusions were not affected. The Editor
and the authors apologize to the readership for any inconvenience
caused.
