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Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/12/31/prepub doi:10.1186/1471-2407-12-31 Cite this article as: Rutten et al.: Laparoscopy to predict the result of primary cytoreductive surgery in advanced ovarian cancer patients (LapOvCa-trial): a multicentre randomized controlled study. BMC Cancer 2012 12:31. Submit your next manuscript to BioMed Central and take full advantage of: • Convenient online submission • Thorough peer review • No space constraints or color ﬁgure charges • Immediate publication on acceptance • Inclusion in PubMed, CAS, Scopus and Google Scholar • Research which is freely available for redistribution Submit your manuscript at www.biomedcentral.com/submit