Retraction to: Cancer Gene Therapy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41417-019-0123-9, published online 18 July 2019

The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this Article. After publication, concerns were raised regarding the numbers of patients in various groups in Table 3, which the Authors addressed via Correction [1]. However, further similar issues have been identified in Figs. 3–6, which affect the results and conclusions of this study. The numbers of data points in these figures do not match the group descriptions in the Materials and methods. Additionally, the Authors’ subsequent study [2] appears to report the same patient recruitment period from the same institution as well as the same inclusion and exclusion criteria, but contains a higher number of patients than this Article. The Authors have been unable to sufficiently explain these discrepancies.

Mahmoud A. Khalifa, Mona M. Zoheiry, Manal Y. Zahran, Mohamed I. Rady, Raafat A. Ibrahim, Mohamed D. El-Talkawy and Faiza M. Essawy do not agree to this retraction. Rady E. El-Araby has not explicitly stated whether they agree to this retraction notice.