Review for 10.1186/s12876-021-01768-8 (2021)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on colorectal cancer patients: A single-center retrospective
study
Version: 
0 
Date: 
24 Jan 2021
Reviewer's report:
This is a nice cross-sectional study. The manuscript can further improve by adding some details:
- Were patients recruited consecutively both in the case and control groups? If so, please state.
- Reference #10 is outdated. Please replace with Siegel et al. 2021 (https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21654).
- Please avoid the use of "apothesis", which is seldom used in literature. Stoma formation is an option.
- Further analysis of the impact of COVID-19 should be presented, in terms of no. of patients infected and
whether this has influenced treatment's outcome.
- It may be useful to add some epidemiological data regarding the average no. of COVID-19
cases/100.000 people in the hospital region during the study period.
- It may be worth to mention in the discussion that the results of this study are in line with those of a
recent survey showing delayed care of colorectal cancer patients as an effect of the pandemic (Santoro et
al. 2021 - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0039606020307789). 
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use of appropriate controls),
and are the conclusions supported by the evidence presented?
Yes
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
Yes
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free from apparent
manipulation?
Yes