Retraction to: Oncogene (2005) 24, 7213–7223; doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1208866; published online 19 September 2005

The authors wish to retract the November 3, 2005, paper cited above. Figure 6a in the published manuscript was inappropriately reproduced from figure 1 in a previously published paper from Rosas SL, Koch W, da Costa Carvalho MG, Wu L, Califano J, Westra W, Jen J, Sidransky D. Promoter hypermethylation patterns of p16, O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase, and death-associated protein kinase in tumors and saliva of head and neck cancer patients. Cancer Research 61, 939–942, 1 February 2001. The manipulation of the figure was performed by Dr Roman-Gomez. None of the other authors were involved in or were aware of these events. The authors apologize to the readers, reviewers, and editors of Oncogene for publishing this erroneous image. All the authors agree to the retraction except Dr Roman-Gomez.