The European Journal of Cancer is an international comprehensive oncology journal that publishes original research, editorial comments, review articles and news on experimental oncology, clinical oncology (medical, paediatric, radiation, surgical), and on cancer epidemiology and prevention.

All published papers containing research data are subject to peer-review. It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere.

These guidelines generally follow the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" The complete document appears at http://www.icmje.org

Correspondence on papers published in the European Journal of Cancer will be considered, and if accepted, published on the European CanCer Organisation website at http://www.ecco-org.eu. Please refer to the "Correspondence" section of this Guide for Authors for instructions on the preparation and submission of correspondence to the Journal.

Submitting a Manuscript
Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ejc and the instructions on the site should be closely followed. Authors may submit manuscripts and track their progress to final decision. Reviewers can download manuscripts and submit their reports to the Editors.

The full contact details for the Editorial Office are shown below:

Suzanne Peedell, Administrative Editor
Editorial Office, European Journal of Cancer
Elsevier Ltd.
The Boulevard, Langford Lane
Oxford OX5 1GB
U.K.
Tel : +44 (0)1865 843282
Fax : +44 (0)1865 843977
Email : ejcancer@elsevier.com

In a covering letter, please identify the person responsible for editorial correspondence (address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address). The covering letter must be signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors. All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted. Also include details of any previous submission. Authors should suggest up to 5 reviewers. These suggestions may not always be used. Receipt of all contributions is acknowledged immediately, with a reference number for enquiries.

Acknowledgements All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

Randomised controlled trials All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in EJC should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. The European Journal of Cancer has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials) would be exempt. Further information can be found at www.icmje.org.

Ethics Work on human beings that is submitted to the European Journal of Cancer should comply with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki; Recommendations guiding physicians in biomedical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, amended by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975, the 35th World Medical Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983, and the 41st World Medical Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989. The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work. Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines. Patients' and volunteers' names, initials, and hospital numbers should not be used.

Conflict of interest At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of interest statement" all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Role of the funding source All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

Microarray data The data should be made available to our readers/reviewers through a MIAME compliant online database or at least a website address.

Format Write in English with double line-spacing on one side of single A4 sheets with high-quality print. Limits on lengths are:
Papers up to 3000 words, abstract up to 150 words, up to 30 references
As a rule, there are about 250 words on an A4 page of double line-spaced typing.

EJC will consider manuscripts prepared according to the Vancouver guidelines (Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical numbers, N Engl J Med 1991, 324, 424-428). Authors are advised to read these guidelines, especially when deciding on who qualifies as an author. Authors may also find useful: Guidelines for writing papers, Br Med J 1991, 302, 40-42. Manuscripts may be altered to meet EJC style.

Manuscripts containing research data, generally follow the order: Introduction, Patients (or Materials) and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Start each section at the top of a new page, and number all the pages.

Title page: The title page should include a concise but informative title; the authors' names; the department/institution and an address for each author, with a symbol to link authors and their addresses; the name, address, fax and telephone numbers and e-mail address of the author to whom correspondence should be addressed; details of sources of support in the form of grants, equipment, and drugs.

Abstract: The second page should start with the abstract, which should be up to maximum of 150 words and must include the aim of the study, a brief summary of the methods, results and a concluding statement.

Keywords: Include up to 10 key words from the Medical Subject Headings from Index Medicus

Text: This should start on the third page and should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Patients (or Materials) and Methods, Results, and Discussion.

References: references should be listed on a new page. They should be consecutively in parentheses in the text. 'Unpublished data' and 'Personal communications' are not allowed. As an alternative, say in the text, for example, '(data not shown)' or '(Dr F.G. Tomlin, Karolinska Institute)'. Accepted but unpublished papers (but not submitted manuscripts) can be referenced as 'in press'.

The format of references should be that of the Vancouver guidelines.
Include:
The names of all the authors when six or fewer, followed by their initials. Otherwise list only the first three and add et al
The title of the article or chapter
The journal name abbreviated as in Index Medicus, the year and volume, and the first and last pages
For a book, the names of any editors (as for authors), the city and name of the publisher, and the year and pages Examples for an article in a journal (1) or book (2) or for a book (3) would be:
1. Jiang FN, Liu DJ, Neyndorff H, Chester M, Jiang S-Y, Luy JG. Photodynamic killing of human squamous cell carcinoma cells using a monoclonal antibody-photosensitizer conjugate. J Natl Cancer Inst 1991;83:1218-25.
2. Gullick WJ, Venter DJ. The c-erbB2 and its expression in human tumours. In Waxman J, Sikora K, editors. The molecular biology of cancer. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications; 1989: p.38-53.
3. Lumley JSP, Green CJ, Lear P, Angell-James JE, Essentials of Experimental Surgery. London: Butterworths; 1990.

Figures: Figures should be cited consecutively in the text. Full details for the electronic submission of artwork can be obtained from http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. For figures that cannot be submitted electronically, please contact the Editorial Office. All figures should be original glossy photographs or professional drawings. Please do not frame the figures. Figures are generally reduced to 84mm wide or less when published. Type the legends in order on a separate page; limit the legend to 40 words or less.

Colour Illustrations: If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures when Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

Tables: tables should be cited consecutively in the text. Type tables on separate pages with a title. Avoid white spaces in the table by using footnotes, and ensure all symbols or abbreviation are explained. Take care to distinguish between 'zero' and 'not done' as an entry in the table.

Abbreviations and units. Generally, avoid abbreviations in the Title and abbreviating single words. Otherwise explain all abbreviations at first mention in the Abstract and text, except for: DNA, RNA, AIDS, and HIV. Standard SI abbreviations for units do not need to be spelt out.

Drug names. Use generic names for drugs. Commercial names may be included in parentheses at first mention in the text. Complicated drug names or regimens may be abbreviated, with the abbreviation in parentheses after first mention.

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/authorrights). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form.

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases : contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Tel. (+1) 215 238 7869; Fax (+1) 215 238 2239; e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.

If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post.

Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies

Correspondence
Letters relating to articles published in the European Journal of Cancer should be submitted by email to ejcancer@elsevier.com. Letters should provide comments, constructive criticism and reference to relevant additional work that enhances the value of the article that has been published. Letters should not discuss or present unpublished work. Letters will be reviewed by the Editors and, if accepted, shown to the authors of the relevant original article to give them an opportunity to respond. Letters, with their responses if appropriate, will be published in online-only format on the ECCO website at http://www.ecco-org.eu. Letters will not appear in the European Journal of Cancer itself in either print or electronic format.