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Aims To investigate the incidence of and factors associated with anastomotic leakage (AL) following gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 3632 patients who underwent a laparoscopic gastrectomy or open gastrectomy for gastric cancer. A logistic regression model was used to identify the determinant variables, and a nomogram for AL was developed. Results A total of 3632 patients were included in the study, 50 of whom (1.4%) developed AL. Postoperative deaths occurred in 6 (0.2%) patients with AL failure to rescue. Esophagojejunal AL (27/50) and Billroth I AL (20/50) were the most common types of AL. Gastrografin swallow was the main diagnostic method. The diagnosis was made a median of 9 days postoperatively. The median healing time for AL was 34.5 days. Of the 50 AL patients, 56% of patients could be managed nonsurgically, whereas 28% of patients required percutaneous radiologic drainage, 6% of patients were treated by endoscopy, and 10% of patients required a second surgery. A multivariate analysis showed the following adverse risk factors for AL: age ≥65 years, hemoglobin ≤8.0 g/dL and malnourishment. A multivariable model for AL showed a strong optimism-adjusted discrimination (concordance index, 0.675). The 5-year overall survival rates for patients without or with AL were 59.4% and 67.4%, respectively (p = 0.354). Conclusions AL was infrequent but was more prevalent in patients with age ≥65 years, hemoglobin ≤8.0 g/dL and malnourishment. We created a novel nomogram that can provide individualized prediction of AL in patients after a gastrectomy for gastric cancer, which may help clinicians in making treatment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Research on the clinicopathology and prognosis of gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma (GNEC) is rare, and a uniform standard for treatment has not been established. Therefore, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 132 cases of GNEC to investigate the factors influencing prognosis. Methods A total of 132 patients diagnosed with GNEC at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital from January 2006 to December 2013 were enrolled. This study was performed to analyze the factors related to patient prognosis. Results In total, 58 men and 74 women whose ages ranged from 38 to 83 years old (62 ± 10) were enrolled. The 1- and 3-year survival rates for these patients were 83.9% and 47.6%, respectively. Of these patients, 100 underwent radical resection, 22 underwent palliative resection, and 10 received chemotherapy alone. The median survival times following radical resection, palliative resection and chemotherapy alone were 48, 20 and 12 months, respectively (P < 0.01). Univariate and multivariate survival analyses of patients who underwent radical resection showed that tumor size, N stage, Ki-67 labeling index, mitotic index and the application of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy were independent factors affecting patient prognosis. The correlation analysis of the Ki-67 labeling index and mitotic index with prognosis showed that patient survival decreased significantly when the Ki-67 labeling index increased (P < 0.05). Conclusions Patients who underwent radical resection had the best prognosis among GNEC. For these patients, tumor size, N stage, Ki-67 labeling index, mitotic index and the application of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy were the clinicopathological factors significantly associated with patient prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Background Oral leukoplakia is a precancerous disorder that is common among residents in Linxian. However, the associations between oral leukoplakia and upper gastrointestinal cancers have not been reported. We investigated the relationships between oral leukoplakia and upper gastrointestinal cancers in the Linxian General Population Trial cohort. Methods The Linxian General Population Trial cohort, with 29,584 healthy adults enrolled in 1985 and followed through the end of 2012. With collected baseline data, hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for developing upper gastrointestinal cancers were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models. Results During 28 years of follow-up, we confirmed a total of 2924 incident esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cases, 1644 gastric cardia cancers and 590 gastric non-cardia cancers. Overall, participants with oral leukoplakia had significantly higher risk of developing ESCC (HR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.29). Among individuals ⩽52 years old at baseline, oral leukoplakia was associated with elevated risk of ESCC (HR = 1.31, 95%CI: 1.15, 1.49). No significant associations were observed for gastric cardia or non-cardia cancers in either all subjects or subgroups. Conclusions Oral leukoplakia was associated with increased risk of ESCC, particularly in younger population. Future studies are needed to confirm these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Most cancers are due to modifiable lifestyle and environmental risk factors, and are potentially preventable. No studies have provided a systematic quantitative assessment of the burden of cancer mortality and incidence attributable to known risk factors in China. Methods We calculated the proportions of cancer deaths and new cases attributable to known risk factors in China, based on the prevalence of exposure around 1990 and national data on cancer mortality and incidence for the year 2005. Results Chronic infection is the main risk factor for cancer in China, accounting for 29.4% of cancer deaths (31.7% in men and 25.3% in women), followed by tobacco smoking (22.6% with 32.7% in men and 5.0% in women), low fruit intake (13.0%), alcohol drinking (4.4%), low vegetable intake (3.6%) and occupational exposures (2.7%). The remaining factors, including environmental agents, physical inactivity, the use of exogenous hormones and reproductive factors are each responsible for <1.0%. Conclusions Modifiable risk factors explain nearly 60% of cancer deaths in China, with a predominant role of chronic infection and tobacco smoking. Our findings could provide a basis for cancer prevention and control programs aimed at reducing cancer risk in other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Electroluminescence refrigeration in light emitting diodes is studied by taking into account carrier transport, carrier recombination, and influence of the dimensionality of electronic density of states (DOS) in active region. The cooling process happens when carriers transport from the metal contacts to the barrier layers. For a given bias voltage, the cooling power density decreases monotonically with the dimension of the DOS and increases as the carrier effective masses increases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In Europe, swainsonine has been studied widely for prevention of metastasis and cancer therapy. In order to investigate the effects and mechanisms of swainsonine on the human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cell, we carried out in vivo and in vitro experiments. After treatment with swainsonine, an effective dose and IC50 value of swainsonine for SGC-7901 cells were examined by MTT assay. Cell-cycle distribution and apoptotic rates were analyzed using FCM, and [Ca2+]i was measured using LSCM. The expression of p53, c-myc and Bcl-2 were determined using an immunocytochemical method. Simultaneously, 50 mice were divided randomly into five groups. Three groups were administrated swainsonine at dose of 3, 6 and 12mg/kg body wt., two control groups were administrated N.S. 20ml/kg body wt. and 5-Fu 20mg/kg body wt., respectively, by intraperitoneal injection. The inhibition rate was calculated and pathological sections were observed. The growth of SGC-7901 cell is inhibited by swainsonine in vitro, with an IC50 value at 24h of 0.84μg/ml, and complete inhibition concentration is 6.2μg/ml. After treatment with swainsonine at the concentrations of 0.5, 1.5 and 4.5μg/ml for 24h, the expression of apoptosis inhibiting gene p53 and bcl-2 decreases, and the apoptotic trigger gene c-myc increases markedly (p<0.05), as well as [Ca2+]i overloading, SGC-7901 cell is induced to apoptosis in the end. It is also found that the percentages of S phase are 38.8%, 39.7% and 29.6%, respectively (20.0% in control group and 23.2% in 5-Fu group). The rates of inhibition were 13.2%, 28.9%, 27.3%, respectively, when the nude mice were administered swainsonine (p<0.05 or 0.01). The structure of the tumor showed hemorrhage, necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration. We therefore conclude that swainsonine could inhibit cell proliferation in vitro and the growth of human gastric carcinoma in vivo. The mechanisms of swainsonine-induced apoptosis may relate to [Ca2+]i overloading and the expression of apoptosis-related genes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents a microfluidic system enabling continuous characterization of instantaneous Young's modulus (Einstantaneous) of single cells in suspension. In this study, cells were aspirated continuously through a constriction channel while cellular entry processes were monitored using a high-speed camera. Numerical simulations were conducted to model cellular entry process into the constriction channel where a visco-hyperelastic solid was used to model biological cells and the cellular friction with the constriction channel wall (ƒc) was properly addressed. Both experimental observations and numerical simulations confirmed the two-stage cellular entry process into the constriction channel: an instantaneous jump into the channel quantified by instantaneous aspiration length (Linstantaneous) followed by a creeping increase in aspiration length terminated by transitional aspiration length (Ltransitional). Numerical simulations reveal that Linstantaneous and Ltransitional are reversely proportional to Einstantaneous, which are affected by ƒc regardless of other cellular viscoelastic parameters. By combining measured Linstantaneous and Ltransitional with these obtained from numerical simulations, Einstantaneous and ƒc were quantified as 3.48 ± 0.86 kPa and 0.39 ± 0.11 for A549 cells (ncell = 199) and 2.99 ± 0.38 kPa and 0.37 ± 0.02 for 95C cells (ncell = 164). As a platform technology, this method can be used to characterize Einstantaneous of various cell types in a continuous manner for cellular biophysical property characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To explore the characteristics of Helicobacter pylori resistance in China and the association between antibiotic resistance and several clinical factors. Methods H. pylori strains were collected from patients in 13 provinces or cities in China between 2010 and 2016. Demographic data including type of disease, geographic area, age, gender and isolation year were collected to analyse their association with antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance was detected using the Etest test and the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Results H. pylori were successfully cultured from 1117 patients. The prevalence of metronidazole, clarithromycin (CLA), azithromycin, levofloxacin (LEV), moxifloxacin, amoxicillin (AMO), tetracycline and rifampicin resistance was 78.2, 22.1, 23.3, 19.2, 17.2, 3.4, 1.9 and 1.5%, respectively. No resistance to furazolidone was observed. The resistance rates to LEV and moxifloxacin were higher in strains isolated from patients with gastritis compared to those with duodenal ulcer and among women. Compared to patients ≥40 years old, younger patients exhibited lower resistance rates to CLA, azithromycin, LEV and moxifloxacin. The resistance rates to CLA and AMO were higher in strains isolated more recently, and we also found that the prevalence of resistance to metronidazole, CLA, azithromycin and AMO were significantly different among different regions of China. Conclusions The resistance rates to metronidazole, CLA and LEV were high in China. Patient age, gender, disease and location were associated with the resistance of H. pylori to some antibiotics. Furazolidone, AMO and tetracycline are better choices for H. pylori treatment in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]