RETRACTED: Efficacy of accelerated partial breast irradiation as a neoadjuvant treatment for patients with breast cancer: A pilot study

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy.Reason: It has been called to our attention by one of the indentified authors, Dr. Minoru Uematsu of Keio University School of Medicine, that he did not contribute to this paper and was unaware of its submission. In addition, Dr. Uematsu informs us that the data appear to be an updated version without attribution to his presentation at the 22nd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium December 8–11, 1999 (previously published as an abstract (Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 1999; 57:108). Dr. Uematsu also states that the information contained in the SURGERY article is misleading and inaccurate in that the patients were treated with whole breast irradiation in addition to the accelerated partial breast irradiation, a fact that was not stated in the article. The Editors feel that this is a serious misrepresentation of the treatment method.The Editors have contacted Kazuhiko Sato, M.D., Ph.D., who submitted the manuscript for publication and is its first author. Dr. Sato concedes and apologizes for (1) the listing of Dr. Uematsu as an author without his permission, (2) failing to provide the attribution to the original presentation and (3) omitting the crucial fact that conventional whole breast irradiation of 50 Gy was used as a further treatment of patients receiving the APBI.With these facts in hand, it is regrettable but necessary that we retract this article in its entirety.