Ochratoxin study

Dear Sir, With reference to the article published by Son et al.[1] in 2003, we must point out that their results were based on materials from a study we conducted at Hannover Medical School under the sponsorship of the French Ministry of the Environment, the French Ministry of Research and Universities and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The renal tumorigenicity results from this study were published by Castegnaro et al.[2] in 1998. It is unfortunate that Son et al.[1] do not specifically indicate that the protocol from which their materials were derived was the one we conducted earlier in Hannover. In fact, their statements in their article imply that it was an independent study. We trust that bringing these facts to the attention of your readership will clear up any potential confusion. Yours sincerely, Marcel Castegnaro, Helmut Bartsch, Thomas Tillmann, Ulrich Mohr