title: Nobody needs "relative tumour sizes" to compare tumour growth curves.
abstract: Tumour growth curve experiments play an important role in experimental oncology and established methods exist for their unbiased interpretation. However, many authors till introduce systemic biases to their data by using the so-called "relative tumour size" transformation, inspite of wide awarance about the limitations of this latter method. With this communication and by using a fictive exaggeration of the problems connected with the application of this transformation we would like to appeal to both authors and reviewers likewise to ban this potential source of misinterpretation from the oncological literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: I D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Bassukas
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hofmockel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002138:Calibration; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*