A multicentre cohort study of serum and peritoneal biomarkers to predict anastomotic leakage after rectal cancer resection.

"Conflicts of interest All authors declare no conflict of interest."

"We would like to thank all patients who participated in this study. We are grateful to everyone in the department of surgery and laboratories of all participating hospitals: Havenziekenhuis, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, IJsselland Ziekenhuis, Capelle aan den Ijssel, the Netherlands, Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis, Delft, the Netherlands, Isala, Zwolle, the Netherlands, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands, Jeroen Bosch Ziekenhuis, Den Bosch, the Netherlands, OLVG Oost, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, University Hospital Leuven, Leuven (Mrs I. Terrasson), Belgium and University Hospital Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium. We would also like to thank all co‐workers at the Department of Immunology, Gastroenterology and Clinical Chemistry of the Erasmus MC University Medical Center. This study was funded by Medtronic."

"This study was designed as an international multicentre prospective cohort study. Ten hospitals in the Netherlands and Belgium participated in the study. Patients were included between August 2015 and October 2017. The medical ethics committees of the Erasmus MC University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and of the University Hospital Leuven in Belgium approved this study. Ethical approval was also obtained in the other participating hospitals. This study was registered at http://www.ISRCTN.org (study ID 84052649)."