Reviewer's report
Title:Gynecomastia during imatinib mesylate treatment for gastrointestinal
tumor: a rare adverse event
Version: 1Date:6 July 2011
Reviewer: Philippe Cassier
Reviewer's report:
Major compulsory revisions: None
Minor essential revisions:
Overall the article is clearly resented and the level of english is acceptable
although authors should consider rephrasing some sentences. For example p4,
in the result section “Blood samples taken randomly from six patients who do not
have gynecomastia…” should be rephrased as “Blood samples taken from six
randomly selected patients who did not have gynecomastia…”
The author state in their introduction that gynecomastia is a rare event in patients
treated with imatinib mesylate which is in line with the reviewer’s personal
experience, although as it is rarely symptomatic it may be underreported.
However, in the material and methods and result section it appears that 6 of 57
(10%!!!) had such an event therefore making it a very frequent side effect,
especially considering that all patients apparently complained about their
gynecomastia being painful. Please discuss hypotheses possibly explaining this
difference between expected and observed frequency.
As the authors underline in their discussion, other medications are known to
cause gynecomastia, it is therefore esential that the authors a list of concurrent
medications taken by their patients.
Discretionary revisions: None
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I have received honoraria from Novartis
Reviewer's report
Title:Gynecomastia during imatinib mesylate treatment for gastrointestinal
tumor: a rare adverse event
Version: 1Date:6 July 2011
Reviewer: Philippe Cassier
Reviewer's report:
Major compulsory revisions: None
Minor essential revisions:
Overall the article is clearly resented and the level of english is acceptable
although authors should consider rephrasing some sentences. For example p4,
in the result section “Blood samples taken randomly from six patients who do not
have gynecomastia…” should be rephrased as “Blood samples taken from six
randomly selected patients who did not have gynecomastia…”
The author state in their introduction that gynecomastia is a rare event in patients
treated with imatinib mesylate which is in line with the reviewer’s personal
experience, although as it is rarely symptomatic it may be underreported.
However, in the material and methods and result section it appears that 6 of 57
(10%!!!) had such an event therefore making it a very frequent side effect,
especially considering that all patients apparently complained about their
gynecomastia being painful. Please discuss hypotheses possibly explaining this
difference between expected and observed frequency.
As the authors underline in their discussion, other medications are known to
cause gynecomastia, it is therefore esential that the authors a list of concurrent
medications taken by their patients.
Discretionary revisions: None
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I have received honoraria from Novartis
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Gynecomastia during imatinib mesylate treatment for gastrointestinal
tumor: a rare adverse event
Version: 1Date:6 July 2011
Reviewer: Philippe Cassier
Reviewer's report:
Major compulsory revisions: None
Minor essential revisions:
Overall the article is clearly resented and the level of english is acceptable
although authors should consider rephrasing some sentences. For example p4,
in the result section “Blood samples taken randomly from six patients who do not
have gynecomastia…” should be rephrased as “Blood samples taken from six
randomly selected patients who did not have gynecomastia…”
The author state in their introduction that gynecomastia is a rare event in patients
treated with imatinib mesylate which is in line with the reviewer’s personal
experience, although as it is rarely symptomatic it may be underreported.
However, in the material and methods and result section it appears that 6 of 57
(10%!!!) had such an event therefore making it a very frequent side effect,
especially considering that all patients apparently complained about their
gynecomastia being painful. Please discuss hypotheses possibly explaining this
difference between expected and observed frequency.
As the authors underline in their discussion, other medications are known to
cause gynecomastia, it is therefore esential that the authors a list of concurrent
medications taken by their patients.
Discretionary revisions: None
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I have received honoraria from Novartis
assistant