Anal Cancer: The Past, Present and Future
, Noman Chaudhary 2,†, Husnaat Bajwa 1, Aribah Rauf 3, Duc Le 1,4,* and Shahid Ahmed 1,4,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Overall, this review paper is well written and provides a nice summary to readers on the current status and treatment of anal cancer. Some minor things for the authors to consider:
- The pathophysiology of this disease differs between men and women, with HIV not playing such a significant role in women, especially in western countries where incidence is increasing. This could be made clearer in the manuscript (for example, this topic is discussed in another review article "A 2020 update of anal cancer: The increasing problem in women and expanding treatment landscape"). Adding a comment on the role of screening and prevention specifically in women would also be beneficial in the relevant section.
- The anatomy explanation would make more sense under its own subheading
- Consider adding the relevance (or current lack thereof) of gene expression and implications for treatment
- Some minor errors in paper, review required (for example "adenocarcinoma" is duplicated in line 86
Author Response
Top of Form
March 05, 2023
Dr. Sharlene Gill
Editor-in-Chief
Current Oncology
RE: ANAL CANCER: THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE (2247385)
Dear Dr. Gill
Thank you very much for the correspondence by the editorial staff regarding the above manuscript. We appreciated the comments made by the reviewers and have thoroughly addressed them in the revision of the manuscript as described below:
Reviewer 1
Overall, this review paper is well written and provides a nice summary to readers on the current status and treatment of anal cancer. Some minor things for the authors to consider:
- The pathophysiology of this disease differs between men and women, with HIV not playing such a significant role in women, especially in western countries where incidence is increasing. This could be made clearer in the manuscript (for example, this topic is discussed in another review article "A 2020 update of anal cancer: The increasing problem in women and expanding treatment landscape"). Adding a comment on the role of screening and prevention specifically in women would also be beneficial in the relevant section.
Thanks very much for the positive comments. We have further elaborated epidemiology of anal cancer in women and have added new information in the “Risk Factors” section along with 3 new references including paper by Lum et sl as suggested by the reviewer.
- The anatomy explanation would make more sense under its own subheading
Thank you for the suggestion. A new subsection for anatomy (4.1 Anatomy of anal canal) has been added in the revised manuscript.
- Consider adding the relevance (or current lack thereof) of gene expression and implications for treatment
Thanks very much for the comments. We have added current predictive relevance of biomarker in the gene expression profile section (4.2.1).
- Some minor errors in paper, review required (for example "adenocarcinoma" is duplicated in line 86
Thanks for highlighting the error. We have made the correction and thoroughly reviewed the manuscript.
Reviewer 2
I was glad to review the work of the authors regarding this very interesting review on anal cancer. The manuscript is well-written and the incorporated tables make the study easy to follow.
I strongly recommend acceptance for publication of the paper after minor changes.
Despite the major advances in anal cancer research, there are still numerous unanswered questions regarding the ideal management of patients with anal cancer.
1) I would suggest adding recent data on anal cancer epidemiology to the introduction section
Consider citing the recently published article:
- American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts and Figures 2023. American Cancer Society, 2023. Available online. Last accessed January 13, 2023.
Thanks very much for the positive comments. We have added new formation regarding anal cancer burden in the USA and as suggested added a reference to the American Cancer Society statistics.
2) I would like a brief discussion on perineal colostomy as a surgical treatment in patients with anal cancer. Please consider citing the recently published article:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35664027/
In the revised manuscript we have added a sentence with reference to the paper about perineal colostomy as suggested by the reviewer. Since the proposed topic is beyond the scope of this review paper it was not elaborated in detail.
In summary we appreciate again the helpful comments provided by the reviewers and hope that the revised manuscript is now suitable for publication in Current Oncology. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Shahid Ahmed, MD, FACP, FRCPC
Professor of Oncology
Saskatoon Cancer Center
University of Saskatchewan
20 Campus Drive
Saskatoon, SK
Canada, S7N4H4
Ph: 306-655-2710
Fax: 306-655-0633
Email: [email protected]
Author Response File: 
Author Response.doc
Reviewer 2 Report
I was glad to review the work of the authors regarding this very interesting review on anal cancer. The manuscript is well-written and the incorporated tables make the study easy to follow.
I strongly recommend acceptance for publication of the paper after minor changes.
Despite the major advances in anal cancer research, there are still numerous unanswered questions regarding the ideal management of patients with anal cancer.
1) I would suggest adding recent data on anal cancer epidemiology to the introduction section
Consider citing the recently published article:
- American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts and Figures 2023. American Cancer Society, 2023. Available online. Last accessed January 13, 2023.
https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2023/2023-cancer-facts-and-figures.pdf
2) I would like a brief discussion on perineal colostomy as a surgical treatment in patients with anal cancer. Please consider citing the recently published article:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35664027/
Author Response
Top of Form
March 05, 2023
Dr. Sharlene Gill
Editor-in-Chief
Current Oncology
RE: ANAL CANCER: THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE (2247385)
Dear Dr. Gill
Thank you very much for the correspondence by the editorial staff regarding the above manuscript. We appreciated the comments made by the reviewers and have thoroughly addressed them in the revision of the manuscript as described below:
Reviewer 1
Overall, this review paper is well written and provides a nice summary to readers on the current status and treatment of anal cancer. Some minor things for the authors to consider:
- The pathophysiology of this disease differs between men and women, with HIV not playing such a significant role in women, especially in western countries where incidence is increasing. This could be made clearer in the manuscript (for example, this topic is discussed in another review article "A 2020 update of anal cancer: The increasing problem in women and expanding treatment landscape"). Adding a comment on the role of screening and prevention specifically in women would also be beneficial in the relevant section.
Thanks very much for the positive comments. We have further elaborated epidemiology of anal cancer in women and have added new information in the “Risk Factors” section along with 3 new references including paper by Lum et sl as suggested by the reviewer.
- The anatomy explanation would make more sense under its own subheading
Thank you for the suggestion. A new subsection for anatomy (4.1 Anatomy of anal canal) has been added in the revised manuscript.
- Consider adding the relevance (or current lack thereof) of gene expression and implications for treatment
Thanks very much for the comments. We have added current predictive relevance of biomarker in the gene expression profile section (4.2.1).
- Some minor errors in paper, review required (for example "adenocarcinoma" is duplicated in line 86
Thanks for highlighting the error. We have made the correction and thoroughly reviewed the manuscript.
Reviewer 2
I was glad to review the work of the authors regarding this very interesting review on anal cancer. The manuscript is well-written and the incorporated tables make the study easy to follow.
I strongly recommend acceptance for publication of the paper after minor changes.
Despite the major advances in anal cancer research, there are still numerous unanswered questions regarding the ideal management of patients with anal cancer.
1) I would suggest adding recent data on anal cancer epidemiology to the introduction section
Consider citing the recently published article:
- American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts and Figures 2023. American Cancer Society, 2023. Available online. Last accessed January 13, 2023.
Thanks very much for the positive comments. We have added new formation regarding anal cancer burden in the USA and as suggested added a reference to the American Cancer Society statistics.
2) I would like a brief discussion on perineal colostomy as a surgical treatment in patients with anal cancer. Please consider citing the recently published article:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35664027/
In the revised manuscript we have added a sentence with reference to the paper about perineal colostomy as suggested by the reviewer. Since the proposed topic is beyond the scope of this review paper it was not elaborated in detail.
In summary we appreciate again the helpful comments provided by the reviewers and hope that the revised manuscript is now suitable for publication in Current Oncology. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Shahid Ahmed, MD, FACP, FRCPC
Professor of Oncology
Saskatoon Cancer Center
University of Saskatchewan
20 Campus Drive
Saskatoon, SK
Canada, S7N4H4
Ph: 306-655-2710
Fax: 306-655-0633
Email: [email protected]
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
