Review for 10.1186/s12876-021-01901-7 (2021)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Tri-Modal Management of Primary Small Cell Carcinoma of the Pancreas
(SCCP): a Rare Neuroendocrine Carcinoma (NEC)
Version: 
0 
Date: 
20 May 2021
Reviewer's report:
This is a rare and interesting case.
However, the manuscript should be revised and sophisticated. I have several
questions and suggestions.
This is a case of SCCP with neoadjuvant therapy. NGS showed no specific result
and did not affect treatment. So, the title of the manuscript should be changed to
SCCP with neoadjuvant therapy and removed NGS.
The patient remains stable with 18 months of OS. However, previous reports
showed comparable results.
In background section, WHO 2010 is too old. The latest version of WHO should
be cited (WHO 2019).
It is unclear the time course of neoadjuvant therapy.
Chemotherapeutic tolerance was reduced by cycles 5 and 6. After, cycle 6, a
final PET was performed. Then, chemoradiotherapy was performed concurrently
with the fourth cycle of chemotherapy?
When was a PET-Gallium scan performed?
In discussion section, there was unnecessary descriptions in the first four
paragraphs. The discussion was too long and must be sophisticated.
In the discussion section, the authors described that if local disease alone is
present, a common recommendation has been upfront surgical resection followed
by 6 cycles of adjuvant cisplatin and etoposide similar to SCLC treatment
modalities. I do not think that there is evidence.
Please delate the scale in Figure1-A and unify whether it is a circle or an arrow
when representing a tumor in each figure.
In table 1, immunostaining and gene analyses are summarized in the same table.
I do not understand the meaning of combining them in the same table. Also, it is
unnecessary to list three platform (Temps, Guardant, Invite) because of no
specific results.
In table 2, characters of Neuron Specific Enolase array to the same position as
the other columns.
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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?
Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
No
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes