Human G-MDSCs are neutrophils at distinct maturation stages promoting tumor growth in breast cancer

This study shows that immunosuppressive primary breast cancer patient–derived G-MDSCs (PMN-MDSCs) are neutrophils at a range of maturations stages, and provides in vivo evidence for that human G-MDSCs also promote tumor growth and myeloid immune cell exclusion.

FOR A BRIEF OVERVIEW: The manuscript was reviewed at another journal, and transferred to LSA with the reviewers' comments by the authors and with the help of editors of the previous journal. The reviewers had expressed concerns about the low sample size and interpatient variability. They did not think that the conclusions drawn could be supported without rigorously addressing those 2 concerns. At LSA, we agreed that if the authors tone down their conclusions (in accordance with the data presented), acknowledge the sample size concerns, and discuss the inter-patient variability, the findings are still sufficiently valuable for the community to merit publication.
Based on the reviewers comments from the previous journal the manuscript should be acceptable for publication at LSA with the following revisions 1. please tone down the conclusions, based on the critiques of both reviewers at the previous journal 2. please address Rev 1's pt 3 and 6 experimentally -if possible, this would strengthen study, however would not be required for publication at Life Science Alliance 3. please provide a discussion on the potential inter-patient heterogeneity that might affect these conclusions 4. Along with the revised manuscript, please also provide a pbp rebuttal to the reviewers' comments from the previous journal, and a marked up manuscript file that highlights all the changes made.
We would be happy to discuss the individual revision points further with you should this be helpful. The typical timeframe for revisions is three months. Please note that papers are generally considered through only one revision cycle, so strong support from the referees on the revised version is needed for acceptance. When submitting the revision, please include a letter addressing the reviewers' comments point by point.
While you are revising your manuscript, please also attend to the below editorial points to help expedite the publication of your manuscript. Please direct any editorial questions to the journal office.
Please use the link below to submit your revised manuscript https://lsa.msubmit.net/cgi-bin/main.plex Thank you for considering Life Science Alliance (LSA) as an appropriate venue for your research. Please email me with any questions. --High-resolution figure, supplementary figure and video files uploaded as individual files: See our detailed guidelines for preparing your production-ready images, http://www.life-sciencealliance.org/authors --Summary blurb (enter in submission system): A short text summarizing in a single sentence the study (max. 200 characters including spaces). This text is used in conjunction with the titles of papers, hence should be informative and complementary to the title and running title. It should describe the context and significance of the findings for a general readership; it should be written in the present tense and refer to the work in the third person. Author names should not be mentioned.

B. MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION AND FORMATTING:
Full guidelines are available on our Instructions for Authors page, http://www.life-sciencealliance.org/authors We encourage our authors to provide original source data, particularly uncropped/-processed electrophoretic blots and spreadsheets for the main figures of the manuscript. If you would like to add source data, we would welcome one PDF/Excel-file per figure for this information. These files will be linked online as supplementary "Source Data" files. ***IMPORTANT: It is Life Science Alliance policy that if requested, original data images must be made available. Failure to provide original images upon request will result in unavoidable delays in publication. Please ensure that you have access to all original microscopy and blot data images before submitting your revision.*** If you are planning a press release on your work, please inform us immediately to allow informing our production team and scheduling a release date.
To upload the final version of your manuscript, please log in to your account: https://lsa.msubmit.net/cgi-bin/main.plex You will be guided to complete the submission of your revised manuscript and to fill in all necessary information. Please get in touch in case you do not know or remember your login name.
To avoid unnecessary delays in the acceptance and publication of your paper, please read the following information carefully.

A. FINAL FILES:
These items are required for acceptance.
--An editable version of the final text (.DOC or .DOCX) is needed for copyediting (no PDFs).
--High-resolution figure, supplementary figure and video files uploaded as individual files: See our detailed guidelines for preparing your production-ready images, http://www.life-sciencealliance.org/authors --Summary blurb (enter in submission system): A short text summarizing in a single sentence the study (max. 200 characters including spaces). This text is used in conjunction with the titles of papers, hence should be informative and complementary to the title. It should describe the context and significance of the findings for a general readership; it should be written in the present tense and refer to the work in the third person. Author names should not be mentioned.

B. MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION AND FORMATTING:
Full guidelines are available on our Instructions for Authors page, http://www.life-sciencealliance.org/authors We encourage our authors to provide original source data, particularly uncropped/-processed electrophoretic blots and spreadsheets for the main figures of the manuscript. If you would like to add source data, we would welcome one PDF/Excel-file per figure for this information. These files will be linked online as supplementary "Source Data" files. **Submission of a paper that does not conform to Life Science Alliance guidelines will delay the acceptance of your manuscript.** **It is Life Science Alliance policy that if requested, original data images must be made available to the editors. Failure to provide original images upon request will result in unavoidable delays in publication. Please ensure that you have access to all original data images prior to final submission.** **The license to publish form must be signed before your manuscript can be sent to production. A link to the electronic license to publish form will be sent to the corresponding author only. Please take a moment to check your funder requirements.** **Reviews, decision letters, and point-by-point responses associated with peer-review at Life Science Alliance will be published online, alongside the manuscript. If you do want to opt out of having the reviewer reports and your point-by-point responses displayed, please let us know immediately.** Thank you for your attention to these final processing requirements. Please revise and format the manuscript and upload materials within 7 days.
Thank you for this interesting contribution, we look forward to publishing your paper in Life Science Alliance. The final published version of your manuscript will be deposited by us to PubMed Central upon online publication.
Your manuscript will now progress through copyediting and proofing. It is journal policy that authors provide original data upon request.
Reviews, decision letters, and point-by-point responses associated with peer-review at Life Science Alliance will be published online, alongside the manuscript. If you do want to opt out of having the reviewer reports and your point-by-point responses displayed, please let us know immediately. ***IMPORTANT: If you will be unreachable at any time, please provide us with the email address of an alternate author. Failure to respond to routine queries may lead to unavoidable delays in publication.*** Scheduling details will be available from our production department. You will receive proofs shortly before the publication date. Only essential corrections can be made at the proof stage so if there are any minor final changes you wish to make to the manuscript, please let the journal office know now.

DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIALS:
Authors are required to distribute freely any materials used in experiments published in Life Science Alliance. Authors are encouraged to deposit materials used in their studies to the appropriate repositories for distribution to researchers.
You can contact the journal office with any questions, contact@life-science-alliance.org Again, congratulations on a very nice paper. I hope you found the process to be constructive and are pleased with how the manuscript was handled editorially. We look forward to future exciting submissions from your lab.