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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is considered to be closely associated with alteration of intestinal microorganisms. The purpose of present study was to investigate the distribution of gut microbiota in the distinction of microbiota dysbiosis between two disease syndromes called Zheng-Qi-Kui-Xu(ZQKX) and Xie-Du-Yong-Sheng (XDYS). First, From February 2019 to June 2019, CRC patients presenting to the oncology department of Zhejiang Province Hospital of TCM who met the established inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled in this prospective study. After fresh stool specimens of healthy volunteers and CRC patients with ZQKX or XDYS syndorme were collected, 16S rRNA gene amplification and sequencing could be used to identify the diversity and abundance of gut microbiota among groups. The results demonstrated that the composition of the microbiota in general control group was superior to those in experimental groups. At the phylum level, a significantly increased abundance of Bacteroides was observed in healthy volunteers. At the class level, Erysipelothrix decreased while Lactobacillaceae showed increased abundance in the ZQKX group compared to healthy controls. At the family level, Prevotella Shan and Collins decreased while Streptococcus significantly increased in patients with XDYS syndrome compared to healthy subjects. Five differential taxa were identified between ZQKX and XDYS syndromes. We suggest that the gut microbiota contributes to the distinction between the two TCM syndromes of CRC, which can be used as a biological basis of TCM syndrome differentiation treatment in CRC.Background Epithelial sodium channels are disputed in renal cell carcinoma, but its functions and effects on clinical outcomes are not well understood. Materials and Methods IHC and PT-PCR were used to detect ENaCα, β, γ, AVPR2, AQP2, and MR expression in the primary tumor and peritumoral tissues. GEPIA online tool was used to analyze the relationship between epithelial sodium channels and clinical-pathological characteristics. Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource online tool was used to investigate the immune profile relevant to epithelial sodium channels expression. Results Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that ENaCα, β, γ, AQP2, and AVPR2 mRNA were decreased in the RCC, but there was no difference in MR mRNA expression between kidney and RCC (p=0.238). The IHC analyses showed that the intensely positive staining of ENaCα, β, γ, AVPR2, and AQP in the renal tubular and the attenuated in the RCCs. MR displayed moderate staining in both RCC and normal tissue. With the promotion of staging, the expression of AQP2, AVPR2, and MR reduced gradually and predicted a better prognosis. Although ENaCα, β, and γ were unable to associate with staging, we still observed a high expression of ENaCβ and γ displayed a poorer prognosis of RCC. Conclusions ENaCs shows an oncogene profile in RCC, drugs targeting epithelial sodium channel should be a possible therapeutic way to treat RCC. AVPR2 and MR exhibit an encouraging immunomodulatory function; patients with low expression of AVPR2 and MR may obtain more benefit from immunotherapy.Objective We compared the prognostic accuracy of four lymph node (LN) staging systems – the 2018 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, number of positive lymph node (PLN), metastatic lymph node ratio (LNR), and log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS) systems – in patients with node-positive cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) following radical surgery and explored the optimal choice for clinical applications. Materials and methods Data were retrospectively collected from 928 node-positive CSCC patients who underwent radical surgery between 2006 and 2014 in our center. Bufalin Tree-based recursive partitioning was applied to split variables (PLN, LNR, and LODDS) into low-risk and high-risk groups. The log-rank test was used to compare survival curves, and Cox regression analysis was performed to identify prognostic factors. The relative discriminative abilities of the different staging systems were assessed using Harrell’s concordance index (C index) and the Akaike information criterem seemed to be the most accurate LN staging method for predicting node-positive CSCC following radical surgery.Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Epigenetic alterations, especially DNA methylation, contribute to the initiation and progression of CRC. To identify novel methylated tumor suppressors in CRC, MethylRAD-Seq screening was performed. As the result, FLRT2 was found to be preferentially methylated. In the present study, we aimed to elucidate the epigenetic regulations and biological functions of FLRT2 in CRC. Significant FLRT2 hypermethylation was initially confirmed in CRC samples and cell lines. Meanwhile, downregulated expression of FLRT2 was observed in CRC, which is probably attributed to promoter methylation of FLRT2. Consistently, the expression of FLRT2 was restored after treatment with DNA demethylating agent 5-AZA. FLRT2 overexpression resulted in impaired cell viability and colony formation. Additionally, FLRT2 overexpression led to a reduction in cell migration and cell invasion. Furthermore, we also observed that FLRT2 induced cell cycle arrest. Mechanistically, these effects were associated with the downregulation of phosphor-AKT, phosphor-ERK, CDK2, Cyclin A, and MMP2, and upregulation of P21. Taken together, these results define a tumor-suppressor role of FLRT2 with epigenetic silencing in the pathogenesis of CRC. Moreover, FLRT2 promoter methylation may be a useful epigenetic biomarker for the prevention and treatment of CRC.Background Electrolyte disturbance and systemic inflammation contributes to poor prognosis of cancer patients. Levels of serum sodium and globulin can reflect electrolyte homeostasis and inflammatory state, respectively, therefore have potential as prognostic factors for cancer patients. In this study, we hypothesized that sodium to globulin ratio (SGR) could have superior accuracy in predicting cancer patient survival, than sodium and globulin alone. We therefore sought to investigate its efficacy in prognosis of patients with advanced gastric cancer (GC) receiving first-line chemotherapy. Methods A total of 265 patients, with advanced GC, were recruited in this retrospective study from January 2014 to January 2019. We first determined SGR cut-off values using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, then analyzed the relationship between pretreatment SGR and clinicopathological features and the effect of chemotherapy. Finally, we evaluated progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of the entire and subgroup populations using univariate and multivariate logistic regressions.