Title: Impact of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy on the Survival of Elderly Esophageal Cancer
Patients Undergoing Surgery: A SEER Database Analysis
Version: 6 Date: 26 May 2021
Reviewer's report:
In the revised manuscript titled “Impact of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy on the Survival
of Elderly Esophagus Cancer Patients after Surgery: A SEER Database Analysis”, the authors
made improvement in this paper. There are some more edits should be addressed.
1. It should be 0.703 in the sHR in Results of the abstract. sHR: 0.535, 95%CI: 0.407-703,
P<0.001
2. Figure 1 of the cohort selection is confusing. Please list the number of patients in each
of the rectangles, and exclude patients step by step. The split of “propensity matching” and
“randomization” can be removed from the diagram. Please indicate the CRT and non-CRT as
the final cohort in the diagram. The matched cohort and training and validation cohort can be
described in the text.
2. Please limit your hazard ratio or p-value to two decimal points or two-digits to simplify the
text.
3. The term “crow” is awkward. Please replace it with patients. The term “cases” is used several
times in the text. If it is used to represent CRT patients, then it should be defined in the text. If
not, please replace it with “patients”.
4. In Fig 2, what is the difference between probability of CSD and survival probability? Is Fig 2A
the cancer cause specific probability of death predicted from the competing risk Cox regression
model? In Fig 2B, please label which line represent CRT and non-CRT. Also, please use equal
number of months such as 60 months for x-axis for Fig 2A and 2B.
5. In Fig4,  is Fig4C the survival probability estimated from the total study sample of 1099
patients? Fig 4A, and 4B were CRT treatment. It was labeled as Chemotherapy.
6. In the matched cohort, what is the 5-year survival probability for the CRT and non-CRT
group, is the difference different in the two groups?
Title: Impact of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy on the Survival of Elderly Esophageal Cancer
Patients Undergoing Surgery: A SEER Database Analysis
Version: 6 Date: 26 May 2021
Reviewer's report:
In the revised manuscript titled “Impact of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy on the Survival
of Elderly Esophagus Cancer Patients after Surgery: A SEER Database Analysis”, the authors
made improvement in this paper. There are some more edits should be addressed.
1. It should be 0.703 in the sHR in Results of the abstract. sHR: 0.535, 95%CI: 0.407-703,
P<0.001
2. Figure 1 of the cohort selection is confusing. Please list the number of patients in each
of the rectangles, and exclude patients step by step. The split of “propensity matching” and
“randomization” can be removed from the diagram. Please indicate the CRT and non-CRT as
the final cohort in the diagram. The matched cohort and training and validation cohort can be
described in the text.
2. Please limit your hazard ratio or p-value to two decimal points or two-digits to simplify the
text.
3. The term “crow” is awkward. Please replace it with patients. The term “cases” is used several
times in the text. If it is used to represent CRT patients, then it should be defined in the text. If
not, please replace it with “patients”.
4. In Fig 2, what is the difference between probability of CSD and survival probability? Is Fig 2A
the cancer cause specific probability of death predicted from the competing risk Cox regression
model? In Fig 2B, please label which line represent CRT and non-CRT. Also, please use equal
number of months such as 60 months for x-axis for Fig 2A and 2B.
5. In Fig4,  is Fig4C the survival probability estimated from the total study sample of 1099
patients? Fig 4A, and 4B were CRT treatment. It was labeled as Chemotherapy.
6. In the matched cohort, what is the 5-year survival probability for the CRT and non-CRT
group, is the difference different in the two groups?
Please review this paper.
user
Title: Impact of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy on the Survival of Elderly Esophageal Cancer
Patients Undergoing Surgery: A SEER Database Analysis
Version: 6 Date: 26 May 2021
Reviewer's report:
In the revised manuscript titled “Impact of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy on the Survival
of Elderly Esophagus Cancer Patients after Surgery: A SEER Database Analysis”, the authors
made improvement in this paper. There are some more edits should be addressed.
1. It should be 0.703 in the sHR in Results of the abstract. sHR: 0.535, 95%CI: 0.407-703,
P<0.001
2. Figure 1 of the cohort selection is confusing. Please list the number of patients in each
of the rectangles, and exclude patients step by step. The split of “propensity matching” and
“randomization” can be removed from the diagram. Please indicate the CRT and non-CRT as
the final cohort in the diagram. The matched cohort and training and validation cohort can be
described in the text.
2. Please limit your hazard ratio or p-value to two decimal points or two-digits to simplify the
text.
3. The term “crow” is awkward. Please replace it with patients. The term “cases” is used several
times in the text. If it is used to represent CRT patients, then it should be defined in the text. If
not, please replace it with “patients”.
4. In Fig 2, what is the difference between probability of CSD and survival probability? Is Fig 2A
the cancer cause specific probability of death predicted from the competing risk Cox regression
model? In Fig 2B, please label which line represent CRT and non-CRT. Also, please use equal
number of months such as 60 months for x-axis for Fig 2A and 2B.
5. In Fig4,  is Fig4C the survival probability estimated from the total study sample of 1099
patients? Fig 4A, and 4B were CRT treatment. It was labeled as Chemotherapy.
6. In the matched cohort, what is the 5-year survival probability for the CRT and non-CRT
group, is the difference different in the two groups?
assistant