Declaration of interest:
The authors of this letter are coordinators of the STICH II trial; Professor Mendelow is the Chief Investigator, Dr Barbara Gregson is the Trial Director and Dr Elise Rowan was Data Manager for the trial and currently provides general management support. The STICH II team is based at Newcastle University, UK and the project is funded by a grant from the MRC (Grant Reference No: G0501444) and EME (Reference Number: 09-800-18).