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Additional file 1: Supplementary Table 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients. Supplementary Fig. 1. Calibration curves of EGVB incidences for 1 year in the training (A) and validation data sets (B) of the ANN model probabilities.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of the decoction of Fuzheng Jiedu Xiaoji formula (扶正解毒消积方, FJXF) plus chemoembolization (TACE) on primary liver cancer (PLC) in patients, and study the underlying mechanism. METHODS: Patients with PLC who met the inclusion criteria were randomized into case group and control group. The case group was treated with FJXF combined with TACE. The control group was treated with TACE alone. The short-term clinical effect was evaluated; liver biochemistry, liver function index and multidrug resistance-associated indicators were detected. RESULTS: FJXF combined with TACE in the case group significantly increased the disease control rate than TACE alone in the control group (83.3% vs 61.1%). There was a reduction in the serum alpha-fetoprotein at 8 weeks after treatment in each group, while no difference between the two groups. The same trend can be observed for transaminase and direct bilirubin in both groups. In the case group, it showed a significant increase for albumin at 8 weeks after treatment, while no change in the control group. Multidrug resistance-associated indicators for multidrug resistance protein 1 and p-glycoprotein were upregulated in the case group but remained stable in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: FJXF combined TACE had a better short-term effect than TACE alone in patients with PLC. The potential mechanism was probably associated with alleviated multidrug resistance induced by FJXF. Additionally, FJXF didn’t increase the risk of liver damage in the combined therapy.

Background: RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are abnormally expressed in a variety of malignant tumors and are closely related to tumorigenesis, tumor progression, and prognosis. The role of RBPs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. Based on the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database, we conducted a systematic bioinformatics analysis of abnormally expressed RBPs in HCC, with the aim of identifying the prognostic markers and potential therapeutic targets.Methods: HCC RNA sequencing data downloaded from TCGA database were used to determine the differentially expressed RBPs in livery cancer and normal tissues, followed by performing functional enrichment analysis and visualization of interaction relationships. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were subsequently used to identify RBPs that were significantly related to the prognosis to construct a prognostic model. The predictive performance of the prognostic model was evaluated by survival analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and verified in the test cohort. Human protein atlas online database was used to verify the expression level of RBPs in the prognostic model.Results: In total, 82 differentially expressed RBPs were identified, including 55 upregulated and 27 downregulated RBPs. Further functional enrichment and interaction analyses showed that the differentially expressed RBPs were mainly related to regulating of mRNA metabolic process, RNA catabolic, mRNA catabolic process, and macromolecule methylation. Five RBP genes, LIN28B, SMG5, PPARGC1A, LARP1B, and ANG were identified as prognostic-related genes and used to construct the prognostic model. The predictive ability of the prognostic model was verified in the test cohort. ROC curve analysis showed that the prognostic model had good sensitivity and specificity. Independent prognostic analysis showed that the risk score may be an independent prognostic factor for HCC.Conclusion: This study constructed a reliable prognostic prediction model by analyzing the differentially expressed RBPs of HCC, facilitating the identification of HCC prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Lihua Yu,1,2,* Xiaoli Liu,1,* Yuyong Jiang,1,* Xinhui Wang,1 Xianbo Wang,1 Zhiyun Yang1 1Center of Integrative Medicine, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100015, People’s Republic of China; 2First Clinical Medical College, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Zhiyun YangCenter of Integrative Medicine, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100015, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86-10-84322148Email yangzhiyun2016@163.comBackground: Individuals with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are at risk of tumor recurrence after surgical resection, which affects their survival. The aim of the present study was to establish a model for predicting tumor progression in patients with HCC.Methods: To develop and validate the efficacy of a novel prognostic model, a retrospective cohort with HCC (n = 1005) at Beijing Ditan Hospital was enrolled from January 2008 and June 2017. Furthermore, a prospective cohort (n = 77) was recruited to validate the association between thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and tumor progression in patients with HCC.Results: The model used in predicting the progression of HCC included four variables (namely, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer [BCLC] stage, presence of portal vein tumor thrombus, alpha-fetoprotein level, and TSH level). The AUROC of the 1-year progression-free survival (PFS) model was 0.755 and 0.753 in the deriving cohort and validation cohort, respectively, and these values were significantly higher than those of the Child–Pugh score, Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD), tumor–lymph node–metastasis (TNM) staging system, Okuda classification, and CLIP score. A simple assessment using a nomogram showed the 1-year PFS rate of patients with HCC. In the prospective cohort, the KM curve showed that the high TSH level group had a shorter PFS than the low TSH level (p = 0.001).Conclusion: The prognostic model of HCC progression was superior to other well-known classical tumor scoring systems. A high TSH level was correlated to poor outcome, particularly those with advanced HCC.Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, thyroid hormone, tumor progression model

Zhibo Dang,1,2,* Xiaoli Liu,1,* Xinhui Wang,1 Mengge Li,1,2 Yuyong Jiang,1 Xianbo Wang,1 Zhiyun Yang1 1Center of Integrative Medicine, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015, People’s Republic of China; 2First Clinical Medical College, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally tothis work Abstract: A systematic review and meta-analysis of previous randomized controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) supporting Qi and enriching blood in the treatment of cancer related anemia (CRA) in patients not receiving chemoradiotherapy were conducted. A total of 13 randomized controlled trials were included. Compared with the control group, better improvement was found for the level of hemoglobin (mean difference=4.57, 95% CI [1.38, 7.76], P=0.005) and overall therapeutic effect (risk ratio [RR]=1.31, 95% CI [1.18, 1.46], P

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a common complication of cirrhotic ascites, and has a high incidence rate, rapid progression, and a high fatality rate. At present, there are no uniform diagnostic criteria for SBP at home and abroad. Some patients do not have the typical clinical symptoms of SBP, and therefore, missed diagnosis might occur in such patients and the patient′s condition might be delayed. This article reviews the advances in the diagnosis, pathogenesis, and treatment of SBP, in order to provide a reference to clinical physicians, increase the diagnostic rate of SBP, reduce clinical fatality rate, and improve patients′ prognosis.

Aim. To determine whether nucleot(s)ide analogs therapy has survival benefit for patients with HBV-related HCC after unresectable treatment. Method. A systematic search was conducted through seven electronic databases including PubMed, OVID, EMBASE, Cochrane Databases, Elsevier, Wiley Online Library, and BMJ Best Practice. All studies comparing NA combined with unresectable treatment versus unresectable treatment alone were considered for inclusion. The primary outcome was the overall survival (OS) after unresectable treatment for patients with HBV-related HCC. The secondary outcome was the progression-free survival (PFS). Results were expressed as hazard ratio (HR) for survival with 95% confidence intervals. Results. We included six studies with 994 patients: 409 patients in nucleot(s)ide analogs therapy group and 585 patients without antiviral therapy in control group. There were significant improvements for the overall survival (HR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.47–0.70; p < 0.001) and progression-free survival (HR = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.71–0.99; p = 0.034) in the NA-treated group compared with the control group. Funnel plot showed that there was no significant publication bias in these studies. When it comes to antiviral drugs and operation method, it also showed benefit in NA-treated group. At the same time, overall mortality as well as mortality secondary to liver failure in NA-treated group was obviously lesser. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the results. Conclusions. Nucleot(s)ide analogs therapy after unresectable treatment has potential beneficial effects in terms of overall survival and progression-free survival. NA therapy should be considered in clinical practice.