About the Authors

George Papaxoinis

Contributed equally to this work with: George Papaxoinis, Vassiliki Kotoula

georgexoinis@gmail.com

Affiliation Oncology Section, Second Department of Internal Medicine, “Hippokration” Hospital, Athens, Greece

Vassiliki Kotoula

Contributed equally to this work with: George Papaxoinis, Vassiliki Kotoula

Affiliations Department of Pathology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece, Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Hellenic Foundation for Cancer Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece

Zoi Alexopoulou

Affiliation Health Data Specialists Ltd, Dept of Biostatistics, Athens, Greece

Konstantine T. Kalogeras

Affiliations Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Hellenic Foundation for Cancer Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece, Translational Research Section, Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group, Data Office, Athens, Greece

Flora Zagouri

Affiliation Department of Clinical Therapeutics, “Alexandra” Hospital, University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece

Eleni Timotheadou

Affiliation Department of Medical Oncology, “Papageorgiou” Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece

Helen Gogas

Affiliation First Department of Medicine, “Laiko” General Hospital, University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece

George Pentheroudakis

Affiliation Department of Medical Oncology, Ioannina University Hospital, Ioannina, Greece

Christos Christodoulou

Affiliation Second Department of Medical Oncology, “Metropolitan” Hospital, Piraeus, Greece

Angelos Koutras

Affiliation Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, University Hospital, University of Patras Medical School, Patras, Greece

Dimitrios Bafaloukos

Affiliation First Department of Medical Oncology, “Metropolitan” Hospital, Piraeus, Greece

Gerasimos Aravantinos

Affiliation Second Department of Medical Oncology, “Agii Anargiri” Cancer Hospital, Athens, Greece

Pavlos Papakostas

Affiliation Oncology Unit, “Hippokration” Hospital, Athens, Greece

Elpida Charalambous

Affiliation Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Hellenic Foundation for Cancer Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece

Kyriaki Papadopoulou

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece

Ioannis Varthalitis

Affiliation Oncology Department, General Hospital of Chania, Crete, Greece

Ioannis Efstratiou

Affiliation Department of Pathology, "Papageorgiou" Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

Thomas Zaramboukas

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece

Helen Patsea

Affiliation Department of Pathology, IASSO General Hospital, Athens, Greece

Chrisoula D. Scopa

Affiliation Department of Pathology, University Hospital, University of Patras Medical School, Patras, Greece

Maria Skondra

Affiliation Oncology Section, Second Department of Internal Medicine, “Hippokration” Hospital, Athens, Greece

Paris Kosmidis

Affiliation Second Department of Medical Oncology, Hygeia Hospital, Athens, Greece

Dimitrios Pectasides

Affiliation Oncology Section, Second Department of Internal Medicine, “Hippokration” Hospital, Athens, Greece

George Fountzilas

Affiliation Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Hellenic Foundation for Cancer Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece

Competing Interests

Author Zoi Alexopoulou is employed by Health Data Specialists Ltd. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The rest of the authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: G. Papaxoinis VK ZA KTK FZ ET HG G. Pentheroudakis CC AK DB GA PP EC KP IV IE TZ HP CDS MS PK DP GF. Performed the experiments: VK EC KP IE TZ HP CDS. Analyzed the data: G. Papaxoinis VK ZA GF. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: VK ZA EC KP IE TZ HP CDS GF. Wrote the paper: G. Papaxoinis VK ZA KTK GF. Manuscript revision: FZ ET HG G. Papaxoinis CC AK DB GA PP EC KP IV IE TZ HP CDS MS PK DP. Read and approved the manuscript: G. Papaxoinis VK ZA KTK FZ ET HG G. Pentheroudakis CC AK DB GA PP EC KP IV IE TZ HP CDS MS PK DP GF.