The European Journal of Cancer (EJC) acted inappropriately in withdrawing a paper that questioned the benefits of mammography, the authors of the study are charging.
Peter Gøtzsche's group from the Nordic Cochrane Center in Denmark published a study in the journal in March criticizing a report on a mammography screening program in Sweden that claimed a large drop in breast cancer mortality. Gøtzsche and his colleagues wrote that the data were "flawed and incomplete" and that the incidence of breast cancer and the number of deaths were underreported.
According to Gøtzsche, just three weeks after his article was published on the journal's Web site, it was removed.
"I was very surprised that the paper was not only withdrawn, but completely removed...There was no trace of it," he told The Scientist.
Gøtzsche laid out his concerns regarding the journal's withdrawal procedure in the November 25 issue of The Lancet. He and ...
