Reviewer's report
Title:Characterization and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
(HCC) in the non-cirrhotic liver
Version:1Date:14 March 2014
Reviewer: Jan Best
Reviewer's report:
Schütte and coworkers performed a retrospective analysis comparing clinical and
demographic characteristics between HCC patients in a background of either
cirrhotic or non-cirrhotic liver.
Major compulsory revisions:
1) Relevant findings of this manuscript have to be discussed more thoroughly in
the context of recent literature, e.g. the progression of NAFLD to HCC in absence
of cirrhosis has prevoiusly been characterized by Ertle et al..
2) Table 5 represents treatment modalities for patients in NCL. A related table for
patients in CL background should be supplemented additionally. Maybe this will
give rise to interesting differences in applied treatment options between the two
HCC subpoulations.
3) Please provide figure legends for fig. 5 and 6
Minor Essential revisions:
1) Patient cohort determined to suffer from NAFLD has been selected by
exclusion of other causes in sonographically proven steatotic patients. It would
be desirable to have a more differential figure of the proportion of NAFLD
patients suffering simultaneously from diabetes, obesity, or more rare risk factors
such as celiac disease and additionally laboratory parameters, such as
transaminases, alkaline phosphatase,....
Discretionary Revisions:
Page 13, line 5: spelling mistake
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:Characterization and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
(HCC) in the non-cirrhotic liver
Version:1Date:14 March 2014
Reviewer: Jan Best
Reviewer's report:
Schütte and coworkers performed a retrospective analysis comparing clinical and
demographic characteristics between HCC patients in a background of either
cirrhotic or non-cirrhotic liver.
Major compulsory revisions:
1) Relevant findings of this manuscript have to be discussed more thoroughly in
the context of recent literature, e.g. the progression of NAFLD to HCC in absence
of cirrhosis has prevoiusly been characterized by Ertle et al..
2) Table 5 represents treatment modalities for patients in NCL. A related table for
patients in CL background should be supplemented additionally. Maybe this will
give rise to interesting differences in applied treatment options between the two
HCC subpoulations.
3) Please provide figure legends for fig. 5 and 6
Minor Essential revisions:
1) Patient cohort determined to suffer from NAFLD has been selected by
exclusion of other causes in sonographically proven steatotic patients. It would
be desirable to have a more differential figure of the proportion of NAFLD
patients suffering simultaneously from diabetes, obesity, or more rare risk factors
such as celiac disease and additionally laboratory parameters, such as
transaminases, alkaline phosphatase,....
Discretionary Revisions:
Page 13, line 5: spelling mistake
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:Characterization and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
(HCC) in the non-cirrhotic liver
Version:1Date:14 March 2014
Reviewer: Jan Best
Reviewer's report:
Schütte and coworkers performed a retrospective analysis comparing clinical and
demographic characteristics between HCC patients in a background of either
cirrhotic or non-cirrhotic liver.
Major compulsory revisions:
1) Relevant findings of this manuscript have to be discussed more thoroughly in
the context of recent literature, e.g. the progression of NAFLD to HCC in absence
of cirrhosis has prevoiusly been characterized by Ertle et al..
2) Table 5 represents treatment modalities for patients in NCL. A related table for
patients in CL background should be supplemented additionally. Maybe this will
give rise to interesting differences in applied treatment options between the two
HCC subpoulations.
3) Please provide figure legends for fig. 5 and 6
Minor Essential revisions:
1) Patient cohort determined to suffer from NAFLD has been selected by
exclusion of other causes in sonographically proven steatotic patients. It would
be desirable to have a more differential figure of the proportion of NAFLD
patients suffering simultaneously from diabetes, obesity, or more rare risk factors
such as celiac disease and additionally laboratory parameters, such as
transaminases, alkaline phosphatase,....
Discretionary Revisions:
Page 13, line 5: spelling mistake
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
assistant