Reviewer's report
Title:Gastric cancer is associated with NOS2 -954G/C polymorphism and
environmental factors in a Brazilian population
Version: 1Date:4 February 2010
Reviewer: Georgina L Hold
Reviewer's report:
Title: Gastric cancer is associated with NOS2 -954G/C polymorphism and
environmental
factors in a Brazilian population
Authors: Yvana Cristina Jorge, Márcia Cristina Duarte and Ana Elizabete Silva
In this interesting paper the authors correlate polymorphisms in NOS2 namely
608C/T and promoter polymorphisms -954G/C and -1173C/T, with gastric cancer
and chronic gastritis within a Southeast Brazilian case-control study comprising
474 individuals.
The findings show that carriage of the -954C allele is associated with increased
risk of gastric cancer but not chronic gastritis. The other 2 polymorphisms were
either not detected (-1173 T), or not a risk factor (608C/T) in this population.
Additional observations indicated that smoking and alcohol consumption were
also risk factors for gastric cancer and chronic gastritis in this population.
I have a series of points that I feel would improve the paper:
Major points:
1) There is little information presented to indicate the prevalence of these SNPs
in other studies/populations. Without this information it is difficult to put the study
findings into context.
2) Following on from point 1, and based on the discussion perhaps it would be
worth the authors looking at other Brazian populations to see how representative
these findings are. If this is not possible, an indication of their relevance should
be forthcoming.
3) I would like to see more extrapolation of the study findings within the context of
the published literature. For example, the authors discuss the fact that higher
expression of iNOS is observed when the -954C allele is present. Perhaps they
could extend these discussions to explain the physiological relevance of this.
4) The authors make tentative reference to the role of the -954C variant within
the context of innate immunity in malaria. It would perhaps be appropriate to
discuss further innate immunity within the context of gastric cancer.
Minor points
1) It would be useful if the authors could refer to the SNPs by their 'rs' number so
that it is easier for readers to locate the correct/documented genetic variants.
2) In the methods section, it would be more appropriate to define restriction
enzyme work in terms of units of activity as opposed to volume added as this
gives no indication of activity which is the basis on which the RFLP analyses are
successfully completed.
3) In Table 2 reduce the values to 2 decimal places to be consistent with thethe
text and also in the other tables.
4) Some minor presentational adjustments required.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
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 declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Gastric cancer is associated with NOS2 -954G/C polymorphism and
environmental factors in a Brazilian population
Version: 1Date:4 February 2010
Reviewer: Georgina L Hold
Reviewer's report:
Title: Gastric cancer is associated with NOS2 -954G/C polymorphism and
environmental
factors in a Brazilian population
Authors: Yvana Cristina Jorge, Márcia Cristina Duarte and Ana Elizabete Silva
In this interesting paper the authors correlate polymorphisms in NOS2 namely
608C/T and promoter polymorphisms -954G/C and -1173C/T, with gastric cancer
and chronic gastritis within a Southeast Brazilian case-control study comprising
474 individuals.
The findings show that carriage of the -954C allele is associated with increased
risk of gastric cancer but not chronic gastritis. The other 2 polymorphisms were
either not detected (-1173 T), or not a risk factor (608C/T) in this population.
Additional observations indicated that smoking and alcohol consumption were
also risk factors for gastric cancer and chronic gastritis in this population.
I have a series of points that I feel would improve the paper:
Major points:
1) There is little information presented to indicate the prevalence of these SNPs
in other studies/populations. Without this information it is difficult to put the study
findings into context.
2) Following on from point 1, and based on the discussion perhaps it would be
worth the authors looking at other Brazian populations to see how representative
these findings are. If this is not possible, an indication of their relevance should
be forthcoming.
3) I would like to see more extrapolation of the study findings within the context of
the published literature. For example, the authors discuss the fact that higher
expression of iNOS is observed when the -954C allele is present. Perhaps they
could extend these discussions to explain the physiological relevance of this.
4) The authors make tentative reference to the role of the -954C variant within
the context of innate immunity in malaria. It would perhaps be appropriate to
discuss further innate immunity within the context of gastric cancer.
Minor points
1) It would be useful if the authors could refer to the SNPs by their 'rs' number so
that it is easier for readers to locate the correct/documented genetic variants.
2) In the methods section, it would be more appropriate to define restriction
enzyme work in terms of units of activity as opposed to volume added as this
gives no indication of activity which is the basis on which the RFLP analyses are
successfully completed.
3) In Table 2 reduce the values to 2 decimal places to be consistent with thethe
text and also in the other tables.
4) Some minor presentational adjustments required.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
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 declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Gastric cancer is associated with NOS2 -954G/C polymorphism and
environmental factors in a Brazilian population
Version: 1Date:4 February 2010
Reviewer: Georgina L Hold
Reviewer's report:
Title: Gastric cancer is associated with NOS2 -954G/C polymorphism and
environmental
factors in a Brazilian population
Authors: Yvana Cristina Jorge, Márcia Cristina Duarte and Ana Elizabete Silva
In this interesting paper the authors correlate polymorphisms in NOS2 namely
608C/T and promoter polymorphisms -954G/C and -1173C/T, with gastric cancer
and chronic gastritis within a Southeast Brazilian case-control study comprising
474 individuals.
The findings show that carriage of the -954C allele is associated with increased
risk of gastric cancer but not chronic gastritis. The other 2 polymorphisms were
either not detected (-1173 T), or not a risk factor (608C/T) in this population.
Additional observations indicated that smoking and alcohol consumption were
also risk factors for gastric cancer and chronic gastritis in this population.
I have a series of points that I feel would improve the paper:
Major points:
1) There is little information presented to indicate the prevalence of these SNPs
in other studies/populations. Without this information it is difficult to put the study
findings into context.
2) Following on from point 1, and based on the discussion perhaps it would be
worth the authors looking at other Brazian populations to see how representative
these findings are. If this is not possible, an indication of their relevance should
be forthcoming.
3) I would like to see more extrapolation of the study findings within the context of
the published literature. For example, the authors discuss the fact that higher
expression of iNOS is observed when the -954C allele is present. Perhaps they
could extend these discussions to explain the physiological relevance of this.
4) The authors make tentative reference to the role of the -954C variant within
the context of innate immunity in malaria. It would perhaps be appropriate to
discuss further innate immunity within the context of gastric cancer.
Minor points
1) It would be useful if the authors could refer to the SNPs by their 'rs' number so
that it is easier for readers to locate the correct/documented genetic variants.
2) In the methods section, it would be more appropriate to define restriction
enzyme work in terms of units of activity as opposed to volume added as this
gives no indication of activity which is the basis on which the RFLP analyses are
successfully completed.
3) In Table 2 reduce the values to 2 decimal places to be consistent with thethe
text and also in the other tables.
4) Some minor presentational adjustments required.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
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 declare that I have no competing interests
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