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Article History

Received: 14 March 2018

Accepted: 6 May 2018

First Online: 22 May 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The study was approved by the institutional review board or ethics committee at each participating center and was conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice guidelines. A data and safety monitoring board reviewed safety data during the study. Written informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to participation in the study.

: Shunji Takahashi received research funding and honoraria from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Arun Azad received consultant, speakers bureau, and honoraria from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Hirotsugu Uemura received research funding, speakers bureau, and honoraria from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and received research funding, speakers bureau, and honoraria from Pfizer. Bhupinder Nanua, Jackie Han, and Qasim Ahmad are employees of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Marlene J. Carrasco-Alfonso is an employee and shareholder of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Jun Guo, Jie Jin, Mototsugu Oya, Katsunori Tatsugami, Sun Young Rha, Jae-Lyun Lee, Jinsoo Chung, Ho Yeong Lim, Hsi Chin Wu, Yen Hwa Chang, Ian D. Davis, Robert Motzer report no conflicts of interest.

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