Author's response to reviews Title: Aluminum concentrations in central and peripheral areas of malignant breast lesions do not differ from those in normal breast tissues Authors:

Title: Aluminum concentrations in central and peripheral areas of malignant breast lesions do not differ from those in normal breast tissues Thank you very much for the diligent review of our manuscript, which we are pleased to resubmit in its revised form. We addressed each of the referees' concerns carefully, and responded to their queries and demands in a point-by-point response letter. In the next pages, you will find our responses; the modifications in the text have been highlighted. Also importantly, the English language has now been professionally edited by Edanz. We hope our manuscript can now meet the standard requirements of BMC Cancer and can be deemed acceptable for publication. We are looking forward to receiving your response. Reviewer's report: " Major Compulsory Revisions " Comment 1: " The Introduction, specifically in relation to human exposure to aluminium, is weak and lacking in appropriate and seminal references. In relation to this I personally avoid citing any publications by Priest as he is funded by and is a consultant to the global aluminium industry. This was pointed out by myself to the Journal of Environmental Monitoring (7, 640, 2005) in a Letter to the Editor about the paper the authors have cited [1]. " Response 1: Thank you very much for the diligent review of our manuscript. And thank you for pointing out the problem with Priest; we were unaware of that conflict of interest. Priest´s references have now been removed. We have now amended the introduction at several points, and cited important references in the field. Comment 2: " Our research [4] has not been accurately cited. We showed that the Al content of the outer breast region (axilla + lateral) was higher than the inner breast region (mid+medial). Additionally, we did not make any reference to whether or not the tissue donors used Al-based antiperspirants. We did not have this information. " Response 2: Thank you for the important clarifications. We apologize for the inaccuracies. First, we removed the text which stated that you had information on antiperspirant use. Secondly, we rephrased the sentence pertaining to reference 3 and yours, for better accuracy, as follows: " Recent evidence showed increased genomic instability in the outer quadrants of the breast [3], and one study suggests that higher levels of aluminum may be present in the outer regions of the breast (axilla and lateral) compared to the inner breast regions …