PONE-D-24-21194Incidence trends of gastric cancer in the United States over 2000-2020: A population-based analysisPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Nejadghaderi,

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Deepak Dhamnetiya, MD

Academic Editor

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

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: 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: Major Revisions

01. The federal Public Health Emergency for COVID-19 in the US was expired on May 11, 2023. As the study uses data till 2020, the effects of COVID-19 pandemic can’t be correctly evaluated.

02. Please correct reference number 4 and add the date of access as on 24th June, 2024 the rate is 36.4%

03. In page 5 the authors state: “Moreover, past research has not assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the occurrence of gastric cancer (16, 17).”

The studies referred to were both conducted before 2020. How can the assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic? Please rewrite this sentence.

04. Page 09: “Adenocarcinoma was the most common subtype (72.38%) in this age group.”

I could not find it in Table 1. Please add “not shown in the table” if it is not mentioned.

05. Same page: “Also, most patients were males (60.94%) and NHWs (65.82%).”

The male and female percentage does not add up to 100% and the male % is 49.86%. Please restructure table 01 to make more understandable.

06. Page 10: “Most of the cases were adenocarcinoma (74.41%)”.

I could not find it in Table 1. Please add “not shown in the table” if it is not mentioned.

07. Page 18: “Furthermore, COVID-19 led to a significant decrease in the ASIRs of gastric cancer in the US.”

Is it due to COVID-19 Pandemic or due to reporting issues? Please clarify.

08. In page 19 the authors mentioned “Despite the lower incidence of gastric cancer in the US compared to the global values, its five-year survival rate is less than 30%” which is in contrast with the earlier statement “…the survival rates for gastric cancer

remain suboptimal, with a five-year survival rate of 35.7% in the US” in page 04. Please correct this.

09. Author contribution:

Please revise as AS, AE, ZY, RMA may not fulfill the ICJME criteria.

Minor Revisions

01. Continuous line numbers should have been used in the manuscript as recommended by the journal

02. Please rephrase the statement for better understanding: “Histologically, they are classified into adenocarcinoma (accounts for approximately 90% of gastric cancers), which itself is comprised of tubular, papillary, mucinous, and poorly cohesive subtypes, in addition to other relatively rare histologic variants like gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), lymphoma, and carcinoid tumors.”

03. Page 10: “Many cases occurred in men (57.80%) and NHWs (47.04%).”

Please rewrite this line and avoid words like “many”.

04. Page 20: “In addition to the advances,

detection and treatment of H. pylori and endoscopic screening for the native and especially the

minority populations in the US are highly recommended (52).”

As the study did not consider the native and minority populations separately, can such statement be made? I recommend removing this line.

05. Page 23: “Furthermore, severe acute

respiratory syndrome coronavirus two…”

the "two" should be 2.

Reviewer #2: Please eleborate on the methods and discussion section. Also, please give a rationale, as to why this secondary analysis was done and what addition to the existing literature does this analysis bring. Use logical models and do not overarch the interpretation in the discussion.

Reviewer #3: The articles is written in a scientifically sound fashion, the title corresponds with methodology used to achieve the objective of the study. There is tittle Ethical issue as the data was generated using publicly available secondary data following sponsors' guideline. The results are correct statistically and were discussed in an intelligent manner.

The article should be accepted for publication.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes: Abdulrahman Ahmad

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Incidence trends of gastric cancer in the United States over 2000-2020: A population-based analysis

PONE-D-24-21194R1

Dear Dr. Nejadghaderi,

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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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Deepak Dhamnetiya, MD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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

**********

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: Thank you for addressing all my comments. The manuscript can be published now. I recommend publication.

Reviewer #2: Thank you for making the requested changes by the reviewers. The manuscript is in better shape now and can be published.

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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: Yes: Aftab Ahmad

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