This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy). This paper has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief. The Editors of Cancer Epidemiology were recently contacted by a reader who stated that the number of cases of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour (MPNST) reported in the paper referenced above was unfeasibly high and, furthermore, that the reader had evidence that the data reported in the paper was not true. The Editors contacted the authors for an explanation. The Editors of Cancer Epidemiology then received a communication from the Chief of the Department of Hand Surgery at Wuhan Union Hospital, the institution where the authors stated that the research took place, who confirmed that the hospital had not treated the number of patients reported in the paper and that there was no evidence that the research on MPNST was conducted at all. The authors of the paper have not responded to the Editors.