Review for 10.1186/s12876-022-02131-1 (2022)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Nomogram to predict cause-specific mortality of patients with rectal
adenocarcinoma undergoing surgery: a competing risk analysis.
Version: 
1 
Date: 
09 Dec 2021
Reviewer's report:
"PEER REVIEWER ASSESSMENTS: 
OBJECTIVE - Full research articles: is there a clear objective that addresses one
or several testable research questions? (Brief or other article types: is there a
clear objective?)
Yes - there is a clear objective
DESIGN - Is the current approach (including controls and analysis protocols)
appropriate for the objective?
Not sure - key details are missing from the manuscript
EXECUTION - Are the experiments and analyses performed with sufficient
technical rigor to allow confidence in the results?
Not sure - key details are missing from the manuscript
STATISTICS - Is the use of statistics in the manuscript appropriate?
Not sure - I am not able to assess the statistics in this study
INTERPRETATION - Is the current interpretation/discussion of the results
reasonable and not overstated?
No - there are minor issues
OVERALL MANUSCRIPT POTENTIAL - Has the author addressed your
concerns sufficiently for you to now recommend the work as a technically sound
contribution? If not, can further revisions be made to make the work technically
sound?
Probably - with minor revisions
PEER REVIEWER COMMENTS: 
GENERAL COMMENTS: The paper is potentially useful. 
More details are
necessary to permit replication.
REQUESTED REVISIONS: 
This study is potentially interesting. 
More details are needed to permit replication
by another statistician.
1. How was the nomogram constructed? 
I assume this was Kattan's method?
There is no reference currently. 
Kattan MW, Heller G, Brennan MF. A
competing-risks nomogram for sarcoma-specific death following local
recurrence. Stat Med. 2003 Nov 30;22(22):3515-25. doi: 10.1002/sim.1574.
PMID: 14601016.
2. There is also no reference for the construction of calibration curves in the
presence of competing risks. 
Was it this method? 
Gerds TA, Andersen PK,
Kattan MW. Calibration plots for risk prediction models in the presence of
competing risks. Stat Med. 2014 Aug 15;33(18):3191-203. doi:
10.1002/sim.6152. Epub 2014 Mar 25. PMID: 24668611.
3. Finally, the concordance index must be specially calculated in the presence of
competing risks. 
Did you use this method? 
(again, no reference provided):
Wolbers M, Blanche P, Koller MT, Witteman JC, Gerds TA. Concordance for
prognostic models with competing risks. Biostatistics. 2014 Jul;15(3):526-39.
doi: 10.1093/biostatistics/kxt059. Epub 2014 Feb 2. PMID: 24493091; PMCID:
PMC4059461.
4. The x-axis labels for the cumulative incidence curves could be improved.
Months from what? 
What defines time zero?
5. I don't think all the cumulative index plots are useful or necessary."
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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?
No
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
No
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