RETRACTION of "Absolute quantification of free tumor cells in the peripheral blood of gastric cancer patients" by N. Bayat, M.M. Mokhtari, M. Rezaei-Tavirani, A. Baradaran-Rafii, S. Rahman Zadeh, S. Heidari-Keshel and F. Ghasemvand. Genet. Mol. Res. 13 (2): 4425-4432 (2014).

The article "Absolute quantification of free tumor cells in the peripheral blood of gastric cancer patients" by N. Bayat, M.M. Mokhtari, M. Rezaei-Tavirani, A. Baradaran-Rafii, S. Rahman Zadeh, S. Heidari-Keshel and F. Ghasemvand published in Genetics and Molecular Research vol. 13 (2), pp. 4425-4432 in 2014, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4238/2014.June.16.1, has been found to be substantially equal to the article "Quantitative analysis of TEM-8 and CEA tumor markers indicating free tumor cells in the peripheral blood of colorectal cancer patients". published in International Journal of Colorectal Disease vol. 26 (10), pp. 1265-1270 in 2011, DOI: 10.1007/s00384-011-1230-8, by other authors. The corresponding author of the article published in Genetics and Molecular Research, Saeed Heidari-keshel, alerted our editorial staff about this situation and requested that the article should be retracted. The results are surprisingly similar, with the number of positive patients being almost the same, for example. After review and after contacting the authors, the editors of Genetics and Molecular Research have decided to retract the article. The authors and their institutions have been advised of this serious breach of ethics.