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The prevalence and incidence of Crohn's disease (CD) in Asia is rising, and it is important to know the risk factors of mortality. In our study, CD patients diagnosed and treated in the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Linkou branch were enrolled from January 1989 to October 2019. The collected data included age, sex, disease duration, location and behavior of the disease, biochemical parameters at admission, medication history, surgical history, and comorbidities. The mean age at diagnosis was 35.7 ± 16.1 years old and the male‐to‐female ratio was 2.4. The penetrating type of CD was the most common (41.3%) of disease behavior. The ileocolonic area is the most common location of disease involvement (79%). 7.7% of patients had low serum albumin levels (<3 g/dL). 16.8% of patients had hemoglobin levels less than 10 g/dL. Of the patients included, 4 died during the follow‐up period. Low serum albumin levels at admission (p= .0307) are an independent predictor for mortality. In conclusion, it is important in perioperative care, especially for CD patients with hypoalbuminemia.

The immunochemical fecal occult blood test (iFOBT) for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening and the serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) assay for disease detection of CRC is associated with a high false-positive rate and a low detection sensitivity, respectively. There is an unmet need to define additional modalities to complement these assays. Different subsets of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are present in the peripheral blood of cancer patients. Whether or not CTCs testing supplements these clinical assays and is valuable for patients with CRC was investigated.

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Crohn's disease (CD) is characterized by chronic and/or relapsing immune activation and inflammation within the gastrointestinal tract. Approximately 35% of patients with CD are complicated by fistulae. However, little is known about the incidence and natural history of fistulizing CD in Asia, especially enterocutaneous fistulae (ECF). In this study, we aimed to investigate the clinical course and outcomes of patients with fistulizing CD. We performed a retrospective analysis using the database of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital to analysis the clinical characteristics, clinical course of CD, gender, age, medical and surgical treatment, complications, and long‐term outcomes. From January 1989 to November 2016, 97 patients were enrolled (73 males and 24 females) with a median age at diagnosis of CD of 32 years (average 36.28 ± 15.84 years). All of the patients were classified by Montreal classification. Montreal classifications A2 (age 16‐40 years; n = 56, 57.7%), L3 (ileocolonic type; n = 47, 48.5%), and B1 (nonstricturing and nonpenetrating type; n = 43, 44.3%) were the most common phenotypes. ECF occurred in five patients (5.1%), enterovaginal fistula in three patients (3.1%), and enterovesical fistula in two patients (2.0%). The duration of CD before the onset of ECF was 3.9 years, enterovaginal fistula was 2.5 years, and enterovesical fistula was 5 years, and most of the patients complicated with a fistula required surgical treatment.

ABSTRACTCirculating tumor cells (CTCs) have become an established clinical evaluation biomarker. CTC count provides a good correlation with the prognosis of cancer patients, but has only been used with known cancer patients, and has been unable to predict the origin of the CTCs. This study demonstrates the analysis of CTCs for the identification of their primary cancer source. Twelve mL blood samples were equally dispensed on 6 CMx chips, microfluidic chips coated with an anti-EpCAM-conjugated supported lipid bilayer, for CTC capture and isolation. Captured CTCs were eluted to an immunofluorescence (IF) staining panel consisting of 6 groups of antibodies: anti-panCK, anti-CK18, anti-CK7, anti-TTF-1, anti-CK20/anti-CDX2, and anti-PSA/anti-PSMA. Cancer cell lines of lung (H1975), colorectal (DLD-1, HCT-116), and prostate (PC3, DU145, LNCaP) were selected to establish the sensitivity and specificity for distinguishing CTCs from lung, colorectal, and prostate cancer. Spiking experiments performed in 2mL of culture medium or whole blood proved the CMx platform can enumerate cancer cells of lung, colorectal, and prostate. The IF panel was tested on blood samples from lung cancer patients (n = 3), colorectal cancer patients (n = 5), prostate cancer patients (n = 5), and healthy individuals (n = 12). Peripheral blood samples found panCK+and CK18+CTCs in lung, colorectal, and prostate cancers. CTCs expressing CK7+or TTF-1+, (CK20/ CDX2)+, or (PSA/ PSMA)+corresponded to lung, colorectal, or prostate cancer, respectively. In conclusion, we have designed an immunofluorescence staining panel to identify CTCs in peripheral blood to correctly identify cancer cell origin.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is still among the most lethal and prevalent malignancies in the world. Despite continuous efforts, the diagnosis and prognosis of CRC have never been satisfying, especially the non-invasive assays.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been suggested, on the basis of animal-model studies, to be related not only to cancer development but also to chemotherapeutic effects. Controversy persists, however, as to which types of PUFAs are beneficial in terms of chemosensitivity. In this study, we used the NIH3T3 cell line and its SIC(sigmoid colon cancer)-oncogene transformants to investigate the effects of PUFAs on the chemosensitivity of non-malignant and malignant cells in terms of cell proliferation. We also determined the fatty-acid composition of cells by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results revealed that the sensitivity of SIC transformants to mitomycin C (MC) was lower than that of NIH3T3 cells cultured in 10% calf-serum DMEM without PUFA supplementation. When cells were cultured in DMEM supplemented with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) at a concentration (2 μg/ml) that does not influence cell proliferation, the sensitivity of SIC transformants to MC increased, whereas that of NIH3T3 cells decreased in comparison with the sensitivity of cells cultured without PUFA supplementation (p &lt; 0.05). There was no difference between the 2 cell lines in the chemosensitivity of cells cultured in medium supplemented with arachidonic acid (ARA). The SIC transformants contained more stearic acid (C:18) and less lauric acid (C:12) than NIH3T3 cells cultured without PUFA. Culturing the cells in medium supplemented with EPA or ARA modified the cellular fatty-acid composition. EPA caused the relative combined percentage of lauric acid and myristic acid (C:14) in SIC transformants to decrease significantly, and the SIC transformants tended to accumulate additional EPA, in contrast to the NIH3T3 cells. We conclude that the alterations in fatty-acid composition in malignant transformants caused by exogenous EPA differ from those in non-malignant cells, and that these changes account for the increased chemosensitivity of malignant transformants. Although preliminary, these findings imply that EPA specifically enhances the chemosensitivity of malignant cells. Int. J. Cancer, 70:357–361, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major health concern globally, but exhibits regional and/or environmental distinctions in terms of outcome especially for patients with stage III CRC.

ABSTRACTUlcerative colitis (UC), a subtype of inflammatory bowel disease, is characterized by repetitive remission and relapse. Gut microbiome is critically involved in pathogenesis of UC. The shifts in microbiome profile during disease remission remain under-investigated. Recent studies revealed that UC pathogenesis is likely to originate in the mucosal barrier. Therefore, we investigated the effectiveness of mucosal tissue microbiomes to differentiate patients with subclinical UC from healthy individuals. The microbiomes of cecal and rectal biopsies and feces were characterized from 13 healthy individuals and 45 patients with subclinical UC. Total genomic DNA was extracted from the samples, and their microbial communities determined using next-generation sequencing. We found that changes in relative abundance of subclinical UC were marked by a decrease in Proteobacteria and an increase in Bacteroidetes phyla in microbiome derived from rectal tissues but not cecal tissue nor feces. Only in the microbiome of rectal tissue had significantly higher community richness and evenness in subclinical UC patients than controls. Twenty-seven operational taxonomic units were enriched in subclinical UC cohort with majority of the taxa from the Firmicutes phylum. Inference of putative microbial functional pathways from rectal biopsy microbiome suggested a differential increase in interleukin-17 signaling and T-helper cell differentiation pathways. Rectal biopsy tissue was suggested to be more suitable than fecal samples for microbiome assays to distinguish patients with subclinical UC from healthy adults. Assessment of the rectal biopsy microbiome may offer clinical insight into UC disease progression and predict relapse of the diseases.