PONE-D-24-04991Effect of chemotherapy on prognosis in patients with primary pancreatic signet ring cell carcinoma: A large real-world study based on machine learningPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Huang,

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The manuscript is well presented, the topics well described. The tables and graphs are clear and sufficient. Only a few aspects would need to be revised by the authors:

• The work has no innovative features. Authors are requested to emphasize the new aspects considered in comparison with the following work: Nie, D., Lan, Q., Huang, Y. et al. Epidemiology and prognostic analysis of patients with pancreatic signet ring cell carcinoma: a population-based study. BMC Gastroenterol 22, 458 (2022). 10.1186/s12876-022-02543-z

• Authors should specify how they intend to overcome the bias of their study in the discussion.

• Authors should review the bibliography (ex: 4-5)

Reviewer #2: In the paper by Yunshen He et al., the role of chemotherapy as a prognostic factor of primary pancreatic singet ring cell carcinoma, a rare pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, is investigated through a statistical analysis. the paper is well written but:

- The introduction is too short and does not delve into any topic about pancretic cancer or PSRCC. It is not satisfactory for a student reader and very poor for an academic reader.

- Statistical analysis does not make any histological classification - Statistical analysis does not mention the different treatment groups, but in general chemotherapy it is not easy to understand if there is an effect of radiotherapy. The author should be able to take the effect of radiotherapy or a particular radiotherapy protocol in combination or individually.

Although the idea of the proposed analysis may be interesting, it is presented in a very superficial way, leaving unresolved many aspects about the variability of treatments, staging, etc.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Effect of chemotherapy on prognosis in patients with primary pancreatic signet ring cell carcinoma: A large real-world study based on machine learning

PONE-D-24-04991R1

Dear Dr Huang

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Filomena de Nigris, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors have responded clearly and comprehensively to the comments raised in the first revision, therefore the manuscript is suitable for publication

Reviewer #2: the author's answers are exhaustive within the scope of the paper's objective even if some remain perplexed about the validity of the paper's idea.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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