BMC Cancer 2009, 9:153 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/9/153 Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors' contributions RS carried out liaison with the BNLI to obtain the dataset for the manuscript and was responsible for preparing an initial version of the manuscript. PS and DC were respon- sible for providing the UK side of the BNLI liaison and for providing data, answering data queries and reviewing the manuscript. OD was responsible for the statistical analysis and providing input into the later versions of the manu- script. GR and SC initiated and jointly supervised the project. All authors read and approved the final manu- script. Acknowledgements Anne Warby for her assistance with preparation of the document and Drs Burton and colleagues for permitting us to re-analyse their data. References 1. 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