Title: CLINICAL MANIFESTATION, STAGING AND PROGNOSIS OF
HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA IN GAMBIAN PATIENTS
Version: 4 Date: 13 Aug 2023
Reviewer's report:
-Authors have responded mostly to the review questions I had in my initial report. I appreciate
the effort that was placed into making these revisions in time.
- I still think cirrhosis's importance must be explicitly stated in the manuscript. As the authors
mentioned that this is a prospective study, it is a bit disappointing that cirrhosis is not considered
when predefining study parameters. It makes me doubt the depth of effort placed into designing
this prospective study during the initial phase. Additionally, since Child-Pugh was being
reported in the manuscript, I would have expected some degree of planning in looking into
cirrhosis.
-The Fibrocan data is quite questionable. The median Kpa is reported as 75, and this is quite
high. I suspect there might be a typographical error, as the 3rd IQR is also reported as 75.
-BCLC D patients are reported to be 41%, but Child's C patients were 14%. I highly doubt the
concordance of these numbers. Furthermore, 41% were reported as Child A, and I doubt this is
unlikely to correlate with the BCLC data.
-Survival is not clearly depicted in the table section.
Title: CLINICAL MANIFESTATION, STAGING AND PROGNOSIS OF
HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA IN GAMBIAN PATIENTS
Version: 4 Date: 13 Aug 2023
Reviewer's report:
-Authors have responded mostly to the review questions I had in my initial report. I appreciate
the effort that was placed into making these revisions in time.
- I still think cirrhosis's importance must be explicitly stated in the manuscript. As the authors
mentioned that this is a prospective study, it is a bit disappointing that cirrhosis is not considered
when predefining study parameters. It makes me doubt the depth of effort placed into designing
this prospective study during the initial phase. Additionally, since Child-Pugh was being
reported in the manuscript, I would have expected some degree of planning in looking into
cirrhosis.
-The Fibrocan data is quite questionable. The median Kpa is reported as 75, and this is quite
high. I suspect there might be a typographical error, as the 3rd IQR is also reported as 75.
-BCLC D patients are reported to be 41%, but Child's C patients were 14%. I highly doubt the
concordance of these numbers. Furthermore, 41% were reported as Child A, and I doubt this is
unlikely to correlate with the BCLC data.
-Survival is not clearly depicted in the table section.
Please review this paper.
user
Title: CLINICAL MANIFESTATION, STAGING AND PROGNOSIS OF
HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA IN GAMBIAN PATIENTS
Version: 4 Date: 13 Aug 2023
Reviewer's report:
-Authors have responded mostly to the review questions I had in my initial report. I appreciate
the effort that was placed into making these revisions in time.
- I still think cirrhosis's importance must be explicitly stated in the manuscript. As the authors
mentioned that this is a prospective study, it is a bit disappointing that cirrhosis is not considered
when predefining study parameters. It makes me doubt the depth of effort placed into designing
this prospective study during the initial phase. Additionally, since Child-Pugh was being
reported in the manuscript, I would have expected some degree of planning in looking into
cirrhosis.
-The Fibrocan data is quite questionable. The median Kpa is reported as 75, and this is quite
high. I suspect there might be a typographical error, as the 3rd IQR is also reported as 75.
-BCLC D patients are reported to be 41%, but Child's C patients were 14%. I highly doubt the
concordance of these numbers. Furthermore, 41% were reported as Child A, and I doubt this is
unlikely to correlate with the BCLC data.
-Survival is not clearly depicted in the table section.
assistant