Expression of Concern

Abstract

Sengupta S, Chakrabarti S, Roy A, Panda CK, Roychoudhury S. Inactivation of human mutL homolog 1 and mutS homolog 2 genes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumors and leukoplakia samples by promoter hypermethylation and its relation with microsatellite instability phenotype. Cancer. 2007;109(4):703-712. doi:10.1002/cncr.22430

This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 11 January 2007, in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), and has been published by agreement between the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Suresh S. Ramalingam; the American Cancer Society; and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., following an investigation by the publisher. The Expression of Concern has been agreed to due to concerns raised by a third party regarding the similarity of certain western blots in Figures 1 and 2, and the underlying data that they represent. For Figures 1A and 2A, the authors acknowledge that the 3S1561 panel was mistakenly used for both Figures 1A and 2A, instead of the D2S123 panel for Figure 2A. For Figures 1B and 2B, the authors acknowledge that they should have shown the expression of hMLH1, hMSH2, and G3PDH in one composed figure, or that they should have mentioned in the figure legend that the same G3PDH expression gel image panel was shown in Figures 1B and 2B. For concerns raised by the third party about Figures 1C and 2C, the authors were unable to retrieve the original image files, given the time that had elapsed since the original experiments. The journal is issuing this Expression of Concern because the concerns regarding the integrity of the data and the results presented cannot be resolved.