Title: Serum Cholinesterase Combined with Platelet-to-Hemoglobin Ratio for Predicting
Survival Prognosis in Stage I-III Colorectal Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Surgery: A
Retrospective Cohort Study
Version: 2 Date: 16 Feb 2025
Reviewer's report:
1 . The sample size (475 patients) is acceptable, but the rationale for this number (e.g., power
calculation based on effect size) is missing. Please clarify.
2. Figure 2: The small sample size of Group 3 (n=35) may lead to unstable survival estimates.
Highlight this limitation in the Discussion.
3. Figure 3: The high AUC values (e.g., 0.825 for 1-year DFS) require external validation.
Emphasize this in the Limitations.
4. The biological mechanisms of CHE and PHR are explained in a more general manner (such
as the association between inflammation and malnutrition), and more research on molecular
mechanisms is needed to support this (such as the regulatory pathways of specific inflammatory
factors like IL-6, TNF-#).
5. Limitations mentioned the single-center retrospective design and the issue of threshold
universality, but did not discuss the potential impact of follow-up bias (such as dropout rate)
and postoperative treatment (such as chemotherapy regimen) on prognosis, which needs to be
supplemented.
6. Update references to include recent studies on PHR (e.g., 2023 publications).
Title: Serum Cholinesterase Combined with Platelet-to-Hemoglobin Ratio for Predicting
Survival Prognosis in Stage I-III Colorectal Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Surgery: A
Retrospective Cohort Study
Version: 2 Date: 16 Feb 2025
Reviewer's report:
1 . The sample size (475 patients) is acceptable, but the rationale for this number (e.g., power
calculation based on effect size) is missing. Please clarify.
2. Figure 2: The small sample size of Group 3 (n=35) may lead to unstable survival estimates.
Highlight this limitation in the Discussion.
3. Figure 3: The high AUC values (e.g., 0.825 for 1-year DFS) require external validation.
Emphasize this in the Limitations.
4. The biological mechanisms of CHE and PHR are explained in a more general manner (such
as the association between inflammation and malnutrition), and more research on molecular
mechanisms is needed to support this (such as the regulatory pathways of specific inflammatory
factors like IL-6, TNF-#).
5. Limitations mentioned the single-center retrospective design and the issue of threshold
universality, but did not discuss the potential impact of follow-up bias (such as dropout rate)
and postoperative treatment (such as chemotherapy regimen) on prognosis, which needs to be
supplemented.
6. Update references to include recent studies on PHR (e.g., 2023 publications).
Please review this paper.
user
Title: Serum Cholinesterase Combined with Platelet-to-Hemoglobin Ratio for Predicting
Survival Prognosis in Stage I-III Colorectal Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Surgery: A
Retrospective Cohort Study
Version: 2 Date: 16 Feb 2025
Reviewer's report:
1 . The sample size (475 patients) is acceptable, but the rationale for this number (e.g., power
calculation based on effect size) is missing. Please clarify.
2. Figure 2: The small sample size of Group 3 (n=35) may lead to unstable survival estimates.
Highlight this limitation in the Discussion.
3. Figure 3: The high AUC values (e.g., 0.825 for 1-year DFS) require external validation.
Emphasize this in the Limitations.
4. The biological mechanisms of CHE and PHR are explained in a more general manner (such
as the association between inflammation and malnutrition), and more research on molecular
mechanisms is needed to support this (such as the regulatory pathways of specific inflammatory
factors like IL-6, TNF-#).
5. Limitations mentioned the single-center retrospective design and the issue of threshold
universality, but did not discuss the potential impact of follow-up bias (such as dropout rate)
and postoperative treatment (such as chemotherapy regimen) on prognosis, which needs to be
supplemented.
6. Update references to include recent studies on PHR (e.g., 2023 publications).
assistant