Review for 10.1186/s12876-020-01558-8 (2021)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
The New American Joint Committee on Cancer T Staging System for
Stomach: Increased Complexity without Clear Improvement in Predictive
Accuracy for Endoscopic Ultrasound
Version: 
1 
Date: 
03 Jun 2020
Reviewer's report:
This study is a retrospective study evaluating the diagnostic ability of EUS for
the tumor depth of gastric cancer. The diagnostic ability for each invasion depth
is valuable. However, I require the following concerns. 
Major concerns
1. The significance to compare the efficacy of EUS for AJCC 6th edition and it
for 7th/8th edition is unclear, because it is not realistic to use the previous
classification according to the diagnostic ability of EUS. Whereas, it is
meaningful to clarify the characteristics of diagnostic ability of EUS for the
current edition.
2. Page 7, Line 8−25: Regarding to this section, authors also should describe
about how to evaluate the factors influencing EUS gastric cancer staging in
Methods section.
3. Page 7, Line 26−Page 8, Line 10: The EUS findings for each T stage were
described in this section. However, I think those definitions of the EUS findings
are better to be described in Methods section. Authors should describe what
histological classification (e.g. Japanese classification) was used in this study.
Are the methods appropriate and well described?
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.
No
Does the work include the necessary controls?
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the
authors.
Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.
Yes
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you
recommend an additional statistical review?
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects
require further assessment in your comments to the editors.
I am able to assess the statistics
Quality of written English
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:
Acceptable
Declaration of competing interests
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