Review for 10.1186/s12876-020-01275-2 (2020)

Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Elevated preoperative platelet -to-lymphocyte ratio predicts poor prognosis of patients with  
primary gastrointestinal stromal tumor  
 
Version: 1 Date: 11 Jul 2019  
 
Reviewer: Ferdinando Carlo Maria Cananzi  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Most of the reviewers' comments have been addressed. However there are some residual issues 
in my opinion:  
- As regards follow -up, I suggested to use a 3 or 5 years minimum follow -up; this means 
that patients with at least 3 or 5 years of follow -up have to be analyzed; for example, in 3 
years f -up, the last patient to be included had surgery at least 3 years ago (i.e. surgery 
performed in 2016) and patients who had surgery later (i.e. 2017, 2018, … ) should be 
excluded. This irrespectively to the time the patient had recurrence (for example a patient 
operated in 2015, who had recurrence after 1 or 2 or 3 years has to be included).  
- I would suggest to lightly reduce discussion section.     
- It would  be helpful to verify the multicollinearity issue by the means of a statistician  
 
 
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
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 recommend additional statistical review  
 
Quality of w ritten English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Needs some language corrections before being published  
 
 
Declaration of competing interests  
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holds  or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?  
 
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below.  If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
'I declare that I have no competing interests'  
 
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