In response to comments made by John Parkin, we would like to point
out, yet again, that it is the policy of the BMJ to print abridged papers,
with the complete version being published on-line. Reference to this fact
is made in the printed version of our paper no fewer than five times. Had
John Parkin read the full paper he would have seen that Table 1 provides
the grade and stage of the bladder cancers used in the final evaluation
tests. He would also have seen that we make it clear in the Introduction
that our intention, at this early stage, was not to investigate the
clinical usefulness of the dogs’ olfactory capabilities, but to conduct a
simple “proof of principle” experiment.
John Parkin’s closing remarks are not worthy of further comment.
Competing interests:
Authors of the paper
Competing interests:
No competing interests
13 October 2004
Carolyn M Willis
Senior Clinical Scientist
Susannah M Church, Claire M Guest, W Andrew Cook, Noel McCarthy, Anthea J Bransbury, Martin RT Church, John CT Church
Department of Dermatology, Amersham Hospital, Amersham, Bucks, HP7 0JD
Rapid Response:
On the need to read the full on-line version
In response to comments made by John Parkin, we would like to point
out, yet again, that it is the policy of the BMJ to print abridged papers,
with the complete version being published on-line. Reference to this fact
is made in the printed version of our paper no fewer than five times. Had
John Parkin read the full paper he would have seen that Table 1 provides
the grade and stage of the bladder cancers used in the final evaluation
tests. He would also have seen that we make it clear in the Introduction
that our intention, at this early stage, was not to investigate the
clinical usefulness of the dogs’ olfactory capabilities, but to conduct a
simple “proof of principle” experiment.
John Parkin’s closing remarks are not worthy of further comment.
Competing interests:
Authors of the paper
Competing interests: No competing interests