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Confusion Caused by Similarity in Manuscript Titles

Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

To the Editor: It has been brought to my attention that concern was raised about a possible similarity between one of the recent papers in the Journal of Clinical Oncology¹ and a recent paper in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.² Admittedly, confusion could arise from the fact the titles of the papers have great resemblance. However, I would herewith like to stress that the two papers are distinctly different, and by providing both references would like to invite your readers to judge for themselves. The first referenced paper involves a project developing a pharmacokinetic model for irinotecan, while the second relates to a separate project developing a pharmacodynamic model for the drug. Although there is some overlap in the populations involved, because of the separation of the two projects in time, the pharmacodynamic model population was considerably larger than the population on which the pharmacokinetic model had initially been built.

In fact, the article on the pharmacodynamic model² was initially submitted to the Journal of Clinical Oncology. It was rejected because of concerns regarding the retrospective toxicity data, but the option was left open for resubmission of a revised paper with a focus on pharmacokinetics rather than pharmacodynamics. In view of the editor’s remarks and the constructive comments of the reviewers, we felt that the paper on the pharmacokinetic model could therefore be suitable for submission to the Journal of Clinical Oncology, as it addressed most of the comments from the reviewers related to the paper on the pharmacodynamic model.

Although I was neither involved in, nor aware of, the correspondence accompanying that submission, it is clear in retrospect that this correspondence could potentially have been confounding. Because of the largely similar titles of the respective papers and some ambiguity in the text of the letter of submission, the submission of the new paper could easily have been confused with resubmission of a revised paper. Furthermore, in view of its rejection, the Journal of Clinical Oncology was not informed that the originally submitted and rejected paper would be submitted to another journal. The pharmacokinetics paper underwent separate review before being accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.¹

I deeply regret the possible confusion caused. By providing this information I hope to have clarified this issue.

REFERENCES

1. Xie R, Mathijssen RH, Sparreboom A, et al: Clinical pharmacokinetics of irinotecan and its metabolites. A population analysis. J Clin Oncol 20:3293–3302, 2002[Abstract/Free Full Text]

2. Xie R, Mathijssen RH, Sparreboom A, et al: Clinical pharmacokinetics of Irinotecan and its metabolites in relation to diarrhea. Clin Pharmacol Ther 72:265–275, 2002[CrossRef][Medline]

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This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Verweij, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Verweij, J. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?