Relationship between maximum occlusal force and gastrointestinal cancer in community-dwelling older Japanese adults

Globally, the cancer burden is expected to increase as populations are ageing. Therefore, cancer prevention among older age groups is important. This prospective cohort study examined the relationship between the number of remaining teeth, maximum occlusal force, and incidence of gastrointestinal cancer in community-dwelling older Japanese individuals using data from the Tsurugaya project; 847 participants were included. The exposure variables were the number of remaining teeth and the maximum occlusal force, with the outcome being the incidence of gastrointestinal cancer. Covariates were age, sex, medical history, smoking, alcohol consumption, educational attainment, and physical function. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to examine the relationship between the number of remaining teeth, maximum occlusal force, and incidence of gastrointestinal cancer. With a median follow-up of 7.6 years, 63 participants were confirmed to have gastrointestinal cancer. The risk of gastrointestinal cancer was significantly higher in those with an occlusal force lower than the median (hazard ratio, 2.80; 95% confidence interval, 1.54–5.10). No significant risk difference was found according to the number of remaining teeth. Low maximum occlusal force was associated with the incidence of gastrointestinal cancer in community-dwelling older Japanese adults.

Current Advances in Coptidis Rhizoma for Gastrointestinal and Other Cancers

Cancer is a serious disease with an increasing number of reported cases and high mortality worldwide. Gastrointestinal cancer defines a group of cancers in the digestive system, e.g., liver cancer, colorectal cancer, and gastric cancer. Coptidis Rhizoma (C. Rhizoma; Huanglian, in Chinese) is a classical Chinese medicinal botanical drug for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders and has been shown to have a wide variety of pharmacological activity, including antifungal, antivirus, anticancer, antidiabetic, hypoglycemic, and cardioprotective effects. Recent studies on C. Rhizoma present significant progress on its anticancer effects and the corresponding mechanisms as well as its clinical applications. Herein, keywords related to C. Rhizoma, cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, and omics were searched in PubMed and the Web of Science databases, and more than three hundred recent publications were reviewed and discussed. C. Rhizoma extract along with its main components, berberine, palmatine, coptisine, magnoflorine, jatrorrhizine, epiberberine, oxyepiberberine, oxyberberine, dihydroberberine, columbamine, limonin, and derivatives, are reviewed. We describe novel and classic anticancer mechanisms from various perspectives of pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry, and pharmaceutics. Researchers have transformed the chemical structures and drug delivery systems of these components to obtain better efficacy and bioavailability of C. Rhizoma. Furthermore, C. Rhizoma in combination with other drugs and their clinical application are also summarized. Taken together, C. Rhizoma has broad prospects as a potential adjuvant candidate against cancers, making it reasonable to conduct additional preclinical studies and clinical trials in gastrointestinal cancer in the future.

Nutritional status of patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal cancer surgery: A cross-sectional study at a single centre

Malnutrition is closely related to the outcome of disease treatment, especially in digestive cancer surgery. The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional condition of pre-operative patients with upper digestive cancers (including stomach and oesophagus) at the Department of General Surgery, Bach Mai Hospital in 2016. We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of 76 malignancies of the upper gastrointestinal tract with surgical treatments. The results revealed that the weight loss rate of hospitalized patients with gastric cancer and esophageal cancer was 76.6% and 66.7%, respectively. The rate of weight loss above 10% of body weight was 19.7%. The prevalence of chronic energy deficit was 29.9%. The risk of malnutrition according to SGA was 77.6%, of which mild to moderate and severe was 67.2% and 10.4%, respectively. The rate of low blood albumin level (less than 35 g/L) was 36.5%. The average net nutritional value was 1146.3 ± 592.7 Kcal (range 246.7 – 3653.5), which equals to 55.7% of the necessary daily intake. Protein, lipid, and glucid contents reached 73.4%, 57.8%, and 52.1% of the recommended levels, respectively. Conclusion: malnutrition was still prevalent among patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal cancer surgery, and pre-operative nutritional status does not achieve recommended levels.

The Relationship Between Gut Microbiome Features and Chemotherapy Response in Gastrointestinal Cancer

ObjectiveThe prognosis of advanced gastrointestinal cancer is poor. There are studies indicating that gut microbes might have the predictive ability to evaluate the outcome of cancer therapy, especially immunotherapy. There is limited evidence to date on the influence of microbes on chemotherapeutic response.DesignIn total, 130 patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal (n=40), gastric (n=46), and colorectal cancer (n=44) were enrolled. We included 147 healthy people as controls and used 16S rRNA sequencing to analyze the fecal microbiota.ResultsSignificant differences in the abundance of fecal microbiota between patients with gastrointestinal cancer and controls were identified. The abundance of Bacteroides fragilis, Escherichia coli, Akkermansia muciniphila, Clostridium hathewayi, and Alistipes finegoldii were significantly increased in the patient group. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Roseburia faecis, Clostridium clostridioforme, Blautia producta, Bifidobacterium adolescent, and Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum taxa were significantly more abundant in the controls. The amount of R. faecis in non-responders (NR) was more likely to decrease significantly after chemotherapy, while the amount mostly increased in responders (R) (P=0.040). The optimal abundance variation of R. faecis may be a predictor for distinguishing patients with PD from those with non-PD in all patients with gastrointestinal cancer, with a sensitivity of 75.0% and a specificity of 93.9%.ConclusionThe gut microbiome of patients with esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, and colorectal cancer differs from those of healthy people. The abundance alteration of R. faecis in patients with GI cancer might be a predictor of chemotherapy efficacy.