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Referee Report: https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.19194.r42130, Nico van Zandwijk, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 15 Jan 2019, version 2, indexed

Referee Report: https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.16914.r38743, Michele Carbone, Thoracic Oncology Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Honolulu, HI, USA, 10 Oct 2018, version 1, indexed

Referee Comment: <b>Waqas Amin</b>; <i>Posted: 13 Dec 2018</i>; We have highlighted the importance mesotheliomas developing in carriers of germline mutations have significant improved survival. In the limitations, we recognize the fact that we do not have genetic information. We discuss the issue environmental exposure (Natural Occurring Asbestos) and occupational exposure and their association with pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma in introduction section. We recognize that we do not have radiological analysis to support exposure and rely on self-reported data. In our cohort of analysis, the ratio of pleural mesothelioma with asbestos exposure to malignant peritoneal mesothelioma with asbestos exposure is 23:277. Information on various exposures and BAP1 has been added to the introduction We have updated the citations in the manuscripts and made minor corrections.

Referee Report: https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.16914.r39375, Tobias Peikert, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA, 19 Oct 2018, version 1, indexed

Referee Comment: <b>Waqas Amin</b>; <i>Posted: 13 Dec 2018</i>; We agree that our large cohort may not be representative of the general population of such patients and we recognize this weakness in the limitations section. NMVB cohort had very small number of cases that were not surgical candidates for their treatment of disease. We have not analyzed them because of insufficient number for meaningful statistical analysis. The specific treatment information has not collected in NMVB database. However, in future studies we will pull the information of specific treatments and include them in the analysis. Again, this limitation is recognized in the paper. We have highlight the issue related to younger age patients BAP1 mutation status in our introduction section paragraph 2. We would like to point out that we do not have such information in our database as of December 2018. There is a significant number of non-European American participants in the NMVB cohort due to geographic location of resource and its participants. We will further explore racial differences in survival in our future papers. <b>Response to Minor Comments:</b>Corrected.

Grant Information: This work is funded and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in association with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Grant [5U24OH009077-11]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.