Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript presented for review is an interesting analysis of the effects of rowing on breast cancer survivors. The study is well structured, the methodology is clearly presented and the results support the conclusions.

My suggestion for improvement of the manuscript are as follows:

1. Minor English editing needed

2. please provide additional information in introduction about other ways of improving overall quality of life in cancer survivors - such as preservation of intercostobrachialis nerves during axillary lymphadenectomy or the limitations of extension of lymphadenectomy or other forms of phisiokinetotherapy aimed at obtaining a more flexible scar tissue in the axilla.

3. preservation is not a surgical procedure - please use the term Breast Conserving surgery

4. In the tables please use bpm not ppm as a standard abbreviation for beats per minute

5. I think in the figures there are a few * signs missing - the paired data should be accompanied by a significance threshold

6. Please add definition of abbreviation after each table and figure

7 Please add a paragraph discussing the risk of lymphedema after rowing in the context of axillar surgery.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing needed.

Author Response

Please see the attachment. Thank you so much for your time.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper aims at analysing the effects of different types of rowing on cardiac function in breast cancer survivors.

This works is missing crucial information for making these results relevant. Physical fitness was not evaluated prior to the rowing program. When working with sedentary people, every physical fitness program which is consistently carried out is expected to yield results over a longer period of time.

Moreover, why should one prefer rowing over some other types of activities. While I understand that it may have some advantages targeting the whole body, it is not easily available to everyone and everywhere. Here the authors just state that it is a safe activity that can improve cardiac function, but there is no speculation about why it could be better than other activities.

The differences between the two types of rowing were not analysed. Why could they lead to different outcomes? Which characteristics could influence the effectiveness?

Best regards

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Moderate editing of English language required

Author Response

Please see the attachment. Thank you so much for your time.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have adressed all my concerns adequately and I believe the manuscript is now ready for publication 

Author Response

Thank you for your time and for positively evaluating our work. Your comments have been of great help to undoubtedly improve the quality of the article.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for addressing my comments. Please incorporate the answer to the comment about the factors that influence the different impact of the type of rowing into the discussion section.

Best regards

Author Response

Comments 1: Please incorporate the answer to the comment about the factors that influence the different impact of the type of rowing into the discussion section.

Response 1: Thank you for your time and valuable contributions that have undoubtedly improved our work. We have decided to incorporate the following paragraph in the "Discussion" section (Page 10):

In our case, we have used rowing as a novel discipline since, prior to our studies, there was no literature on this activity, which is conducted in water like dragon boating. Despite being a minimally injurious, social sport that exercises the entire body through symmetrical movement, rowing does not have the same tradition as dragon boating. Furthermore, our country has a strong tradition of rowing, not only at the competitive Olympic level (sculling) but also deeply rooted in coastal culture and tradition (fixed-seat rowing). This is why we distinguished these two groups.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf