Take home figureAdapted from Bärtsch and Gibbs2 Physiological response to hypoxia. Life-sustaining oxygen delivery, in spite of a reduction in the partial pressure of inhaled oxygen between 25% and 60% (respectively at 2500 m and 8000 m), is ensured by an increase in pulmonary ventilation, an increase in cardiac output by increasing heart rate, changes in vascular tone, as well as an increase in haemoglobin concentration. BP, blood pressure; HR, heart rate; PaCO2, partial pressure of arterial carbon dioxide.

VATS blebectomy and parietal pleurectomy is a safe procedure for treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax in young patients, with a 6% long-term recurrence rate in our experience. Postoperative recurrence significantly correlates with female gender and with prolonged air leakage after surgery.

In the April 1, 2005, issue of Cancer, an article entitled “Tumor necrosis factor enhances SN38‐mediated apoptosis in mesothelioma cells: The role of nuclear factor‐κB pathway activation” was published by Dr. Russo and colleagues. On October 6, 2009, we were alerted to concerns about the integrity of the data in the article. A formal investigation was conducted by the Institutional Office for Research Integrity (UIR) at the National Institute for Cancer Research (IST) in Genoa, Italy. The investigation report from the UIR President, dated November 4, 2009, stated the following:“1) The internal investigation is concluded and no further analyses are planned on the issue.2) The UIR concluded that the article contains evidence of data fabrication/duplication.3) All the authors (either belonging or not to the IST) have been informed of the concerns about data integrity. Some authors acknowledged the conclusion stated in the previous point 2, others did not; however, none of them accepted the responsibility of having fabricated the data.”Based on this report and our concerns about the validity of the study, we hereby retract this article from Cancer and from the medical literature.Raphael E. Pollock, MD, PhD

It is known that the potential clinical use of farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTI) could be expanded to include cancers harboring activated receptor tyrosine kinases.