I'm not saying that they are involved with the publication, but if the acceptance criteria is included in what's in the paper the publisher could be waiting for that criteria to actually be documented by the FDA. I don't know that it's in there at all, but if it should be, I could understand them not going to print on just the strength of the Annuls of Oncology article by the FDA. I believe everyone given authors credit in that article works for the FDA.
If it has nothing to do with them, then clearly it's something that Dr. Liau and the peer reviewers have to settle between them. We'll never know for certain, but if the FDA did release an official document and it was shortly followed by the Journal I'd have to guess that it was more than a coincidence.
Gary
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