Review for 10.1186/s12876-020-01566-8 (2020)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Changes and prognostic impact of inflammatory nutritional factors during
neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for patients with resectable and borderline
resectable pancreatic cancer
Version: 
0 
Date: 
20 Oct 2020
Reviewer: 
Antonio Calvo
Reviewer's report:
Dear authors
Since the sample size is small, it could be justified by the difficulty of recruiting
patients with these characteristics, taking into account that of the 49 patients, the
regression study divides them into the categories of the variable that is being
studied at each moment. This coupled with the fact that the Cox regression, as it
is a non-parametric study, requires larger sample sizes.
It is also observed that even some meanings are within the significance limit of
0.05 (a little above or below), so these results should be observed with some
caution.
For all these reasons I would like the authors to detail the sense that the
regression they show is multivariate, since the term "multivariate" in Cox
regression is not used frequently and can lead to confusion.
Perhaps it would be convenient, in future research to obtain more real data, that
the group of patients was more homogeneous. The study group presents different
evolutionary stages of the disease, so the nutritional situation and nutritional
inflammatory parameters could be different in each evolutionary stage of the
disease. I do understand the difficulty of finding a larger sample group with
homogeneous characteristics that meets the hypotheses of the work.
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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?
Yes
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
No
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes