PONE-D-24-21640Computational Design of Multi-modal Antenna Arrays for Microwave Hyperthermia, 1H MR Thermometry, and 19F Drug Release MRI MonitoringPLOS ONE

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Mai Osama Mohamed Ibrahim Sallam

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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: 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: No

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: No

Reviewer #2: No

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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: Daniel and colleagues present the design and numerical analysis of a multi-modal antenna for MW Hyperthermia and MRI, which is a sound topic. However, corrections must be included in the manuscript.

Minor comments:

(1) Review typos, missing spaces, and minor format issues.

(2) The diagrams in Figures 1 to 3 are difficult to read. Please change the colors, check the typos and values, and clarify the antenna design.

(3) Is there a repository where the data is available?

Major comments:

(1) Drug release MRI monitoring is an adequate application for the proposed antenna, exposed in the introduction. However, follow-up has not actually been studied. Monitoring of evolving clinical conditions should be added or removed from the title. In another way, the title and abstract are misleading.

(2) The topic of MW hyperthermia is well-studied, and the art could be better referenced. Moreover, aspects such as the water interphase (matching medium), the number of antennas, and its dimensions are relevant to the article and need to be further discussed.

(3) First, the Phantom word gives an idea of the ones used experimentally. I suggest using a term like an anthropomorphic numerical model. Second, considering it is a numerical study, why don't we use a realistic model of cancer or a more representative one in terms of location and shape from a medical point of view?

(4) This is a preliminary study of an antenna design and is thus far from a feasibility study. Please adjust the stated scope of the manuscript.

Reviewer #2: This paper presents a design for an antenna system to be used in Microwave Hyperthermia. The first comment I have is on the title:

- "Computational Design of Multi-modal Antenna Arrays for Microwave Hyperthermia, 1H MR Thermometry, and 19F Drug Release MRI Monitoring"

- The word "Computational" seems to be unnecessary because most design in modern research is supposedly computational. Analytical designs are very rare.

Looking at the abstract, the writing of the abstract is poor and long (267 words):

- "This device enables microwave hyperthermia for releasing 19F-labeled drugs from thermosensitive liposomes, monitoring of 19F-labeled drugs, and 1H MR thermometry within a 7T MRI system", this sentence is vague and doesn't seem to match the title. The sentence states that microwave hyperthermia is a medium for 19F-labeled drugs release and Thermometry. However, the title portrays that "Microwave Hyperthermia" is a separate application from Thermometry and drug release. Second, the "7T MRI system" place in the sentence is vague as it doesn't make it clear if the "7T MRI system" is only related to "1H MR thermometry" or related to the whole sentence.

- "Electromagnetic and thermal simulations were performed to evaluate the performance of the applicator with a phantom and a human model to demonstrate the feasibility of hybrid antenna array for clinical translation", unnecessary sentence because the later sentences make it obvious that electromagnetic and thermal simulations were performed.

- "A hybrid antenna array applicator was developed to perform 1H MR imaging, MRI 19F-drug tracking, and hyperthermia. A new concept of loop-type bidirectional microstrip allowed generating uniform |B1|-fields for 19F and 1H and integrating with patch antennas for hyperthermia.", these sentences are redundant.

As for the introduction, the authors jump directly into talking about chemotherapy without a first general introductory paragraph on cancer treatment in general and what microwave hyperthermia has to offer, and then start expanding this first paragraph by talking about each treatment method. Also why is there no paragraph talking about B1 and |E| fields and why the B1 fields were chosen

There are a lot of grammatical mistakes and typos. Please run through Grammarly. There are also capitalizing errors such as writing "table" instead of "Table".

The author must illustrate the novelty of the study

Please add a comparison table to compare your work with the literature.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Design of Multi-modal Antenna Arrays for Microwave Hyperthermia and ¹H/¹⁹F MRI Monitoring of Drug Release

PONE-D-24-21640R1

Dear Dr. Kim,

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,

Mai Osama Mohamed Ibrahim Sallam

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: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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: Thank the authors for addressing all the comments and suggestions. The manuscript has improved and is now more readable and clear. Last minor comment: be careful with the resolution of the images during the editorial part.

Reviewer #2: the authors have addressed the required comments, and I think the paper is ready for publication in PLOS one journal

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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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