Objective:To summarize the clinicopathological features, evolving trends in treatment and surgical approaches, and survival outcomes of patients who underwent D2 radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital over the past 11 years with the goal of providing a reference for the clinical practice of gastric cancer in this region.Methods:A retrospective observational study was conducted to analyze the clinicopathological data of patients who underwent D2 radical gastrectomy for pathologically confirmed gastric malignancy at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital from January, 2013 to December, 2023. Exclusion criteria consisted of: (1) residual gastric cancer or recurrent gastric cancer after surgery; (2) emergency gastric cancer resection due to bleeding, perforation, obstruction, or other causes; (3) comorbidity with other primary malignant tumors; (4) severe preoperative cardiopulmonary insufficiency or hepatic and renal insufficiency who cannot tolerate radical surgery; and (5) inconsistent main diagnosis information across the medical record system, pathological system, and gastric cancer-specific database. Patients were divided into three groups based on treatment methods: the surgery-only group, the perioperative chemotherapy group, and the adjuvant chemotherapy group. Endpoints included: (1) baseline patient characteristics; (2) trends in tumor location and pathological features; (3) evolution of treatment modalities; and (4) survival outcomes.Results:A total of 15,644 patients were included in the analysis, with 12,591 males and 3,053 females, the male-to-female gender ration was approximately 4∶1; the mean age was (61.2±9.5) years. The tumor sites were mainly concentrated in the esophagogastric junction (EGJ) (57.4%), followed by the antrum (25.9%). The incidence of EGJ cancer initially rose and then declined. However, gastric antrum tumors remained stable, and gastric body tumors showed a slow upward trend after 2020, accounting for 16.7%. In terms of pathological types, poorly differentiated carcinoma was the most prevalent, accounting for 55.9%, followed by moderately differentiated carcinoma (24.2%), mucinous adenocarcinoma (or signet ring cell carcinoma,14.1%), neuroendocrine carcinoma (4.8%), and well-differentiated carcinoma (0.9%). The proportion of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma showed a significant upward trend overall as well, peaking at 65.6% in 2022 and decreasing to 57.5% in 2023. Mucinous adenocarcinoma (or signet ring cell carcinoma) exhibited fluctuations with a first increase followed by a decrease: it peaked at 17.3% in 2018, dropped sharply to 8.4% in 2022, and rose back to 13.8% in 2023. The proportions of well-differentiated adenocarcinoma, moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, and neuroendocrine tumors remained stable year by year. In terms of pathological staging, the overall proportions of gastric cancer at Stage 0, Stage I, Stage II, Stage III, and Stage IVa were 0.5%, 17.3%, 25.1%, 54.9%, and 2.3%, respectively. For Stage III, its proportion was 74.6% in 2013, which decreased to 46.4% by 2023. Stages I and II gastric cancer showed an upward trend, with their proportions rising from 10.2% and 12.1% in 2013 to nearly 21.0% and 29.6% in 2023, respectively. Between 2013 and 2023, the proportion of patients who received surgery alone continued to decrease, with this proportion dropping to 34.7% in 2023. In contrast, the number of patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy increased year by year, reaching 54.2% in 2023. Since 2017, the application of perioperative chemotherapy has gradually increased, rising to 11.1% in 2023. Immunotherapy showed an almost synchronous growth trend with perioperative chemotherapy. However, targeted therapy exhibited a downward trend after a period of growth. There were 10,704 cases of open surgery (68.4%), 4,744 cases of laparoscopic surgery (30.3%), and 193 cases of transthoracic surgery (1.2%). Pathological margin positivity was observed in 443 cases (2.8%), and the volume of gastric cancer surgeries gradually increased, peaked in 2021 before subsequently decreasing gradually. However, the volume of laparoscopic surgeries did not decrease; instead, it showed an upward trend. The main resection method for EGJ tumors was total gastrectomy, accounting for 78.5% of the total, followed by proximal gastrectomy, which accounted for 21.5%. After total gastrectomy, esophagojejunal Roux-en-Y anastomosis was the primary anastomotic method, and for proximal gastrectomy, the main anastomotic method was esophagogastric anastomosis, which accounted for 68.0% of the total. For distal gastrectomy, Billroth II anastomosis was the most common anastomotic technique, accounting for 92.7% of these procedures. The overall incidence of postoperative complications was 14.5% (2,264/15,644), among which the incidence of severe complications (grades III-IV) was 4.5% (706/15,644). The entire cohort was followed up with for (47.1±36.8) months, and the 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year overall survival rates were 86.4%, 65.9%, and 58.1%, respectively. For patients with stage 0, I, II, III, and IV gastric adenocarcinoma, the 1-year overall survival rates were 95.7%, 98.0%, 89.4%, 81.0%, and 49.1%, respectively; the 3-year overall survival rates were 92.1%, 94.6%, 81.9%, 51.4%, and 14.7%, respectively; and the 5-year overall survival rates were 89.4%, 91.7%, 75.1%, 41.5%, and 10.0%, respectively. For patients with stage I, II, III, and IV gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma, the 1-year overall survival rates were 96.7%, 91.1%, 73.8%, and 52.6%, respectively; the 3-year overall survival rates were 87.2%, 69.6%, 46.1%, and 32.1%, respectively; and the 5-year overall survival rates were 87.2%, 62.2%, 36.7%, and 32.1%, respectively.Conclusions:Gastric cancer in Shanxi Province is characterized by a male predominance, a high prevalence of tumors at the esophagogastric junction, a large proportion of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and presentation at advanced stages (predominantly Stage III). The detection rate of early gastric cancer has been increasing year by year, the volume of laparoscopic surgeries has been on the rise annually, and the treatment model has shifted from single surgery to comprehensive treatment.

Ophiopogon japonicus, a precious medicinal plant endemic to Zhejiang Province. Its tuberous roots are rich in bioactive components such as flavonoids, possessing anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory properties. To elucidate the impact of cadmium (Cd) stress on the accumulation and biosynthetic pathway of flavonoids in O. japonicus, this study exposed O. japonicus to different concentrations of Cd stress and explored the changes through integrated transcriptomics and metabolomics analysis. The results demonstrated that Cd stress (1 mg/L and 10 mg/L) significantly increased the content of flavonoids in O. japonicus in a concentration-dependent manner. The metabolomics analysis revealed a total of 110 flavonoids including flavones, flavanols, flavonols, flavone and flavonol derivatives, flavanones, isoflavonoids, chalcones and dihydrochalcones, and anthocyanins in O. japonicus, among which flavones, flavonols, flavone and flavonol derivatives, and anthocyanins increased under Cd stress. The transcriptomics analysis identified several key flavonoid biosynthesis-associated genes with up-regulated expression under Cd stress, including 14 genes encoding 4-coumarate CoA ligase (4CL), 2 genes encoding chalcone isomerase (CHI), and 14 genes encoding phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL). The gene-metabolite regulatory network indicated significant positive correlations of 4CL (Cluster-21637.5012, Cluster-21637.90648, and Cluster-21637.62637) and CHI (Cluster-21637.111909 and Cluster-21637.123300) with flavonoid metabolites, suggesting that these genes promoted the synthesis of specific flavonoid metabolites, which led to the accumulation of total flavonoids under Cd stress. These findings provide theoretical support for the cultivation and utilization of medicinal plants in Cd-contaminated environments and offered new perspectives for studying plant responses to heavy metal stress.
Cadmium/toxicity* ; Flavonoids/biosynthesis* ; Metabolomics ; Ophiopogon/drug effects* ; Stress, Physiological ; Transcriptome ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant

Soil cadmium (Cd) pollution is one of the major environmental problems globally. Ophiopogon japonicus, a multifunctional plant extensively used in traditional Chinese medicine, has demonstrated potential in environmental remediation. This study investigated the Cd accumulation pattern of O. japonicus under cadmium stress and identified the heavy metal ATPase (HMA) family members in this plant. Our results demonstrated that O. japonicus exhibited a Cd enrichment factor (EF) of 2.75, demonstrating strong potential for soil Cd pollution remediation. Nine heavy metal ATPase (HMA) members of P1B-ATPases were successfully identified from the transcriptome data of O. japonicus, with OjHMA1-OjHMA6 classified as the Zn/Co/Cd/Pb-ATPases and OjHMA7-OjHMA9 as the Cu/Ag-ATPases. The expression levels of OjHMA1, OjHMA2, OjHMA3, and OjHMA7 were significantly up-regulated under Cd stress, highlighting their crucial roles in cadmium ion absorption and transport. The topological analysis revealed that these proteins possessed characteristic transmembrane (TM) segments of the family, along with functional A, P, and N domains involved in regulating ion absorption and release. Metal ion-binding sites (M4, M5, and M6) existed on the TM segments. Based on the number of transmembrane domains and the residues at metal ion-binding sites, the plant HMA family members were categorized into three subgroups: P1B-1 ATPases, P1B-2 ATPases, and P1B-4 ATPases. Specifically, the P1B-1 ATPase subgroup included the motifs TM4(CPC), TM5(YN[X]₄P), and TM6(M[XX]SS); the P1B-2 ATPase subgroup featured the motifs TM4(CPC), TM5(K), and TM6(DKTGT); the P1B-4 ATPase subgroup contained the motifs TM4(SPC) and TM6(HE[X]GT), all of which were critical for protein functions. Molecular docking results revealed the importance of conserved sequences such as CPC/SPC, DKTGT, and HE[X]GT in metal ion coordination and stabilization. These findings provide potential molecular targets for enhancing Cd uptake and tolerance of O. japonicus by genetic engineering and lay a theoretical foundation for developing new cultivars with high Cd accumulation capacity.
Cadmium/metabolism* ; Adenosine Triphosphatases/metabolism* ; Ophiopogon/drug effects* ; Soil Pollutants/toxicity* ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Stress, Physiological ; Multigene Family ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant

Objective:To summarize the clinicopathological features, evolving trends in treatment and surgical approaches, and survival outcomes of patients who underwent D2 radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital over the past 11 years with the goal of providing a reference for the clinical practice of gastric cancer in this region.Methods:A retrospective observational study was conducted to analyze the clinicopathological data of patients who underwent D2 radical gastrectomy for pathologically confirmed gastric malignancy at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital from January, 2013 to December, 2023. Exclusion criteria consisted of: (1) residual gastric cancer or recurrent gastric cancer after surgery; (2) emergency gastric cancer resection due to bleeding, perforation, obstruction, or other causes; (3) comorbidity with other primary malignant tumors; (4) severe preoperative cardiopulmonary insufficiency or hepatic and renal insufficiency who cannot tolerate radical surgery; and (5) inconsistent main diagnosis information across the medical record system, pathological system, and gastric cancer-specific database. Patients were divided into three groups based on treatment methods: the surgery-only group, the perioperative chemotherapy group, and the adjuvant chemotherapy group. Endpoints included: (1) baseline patient characteristics; (2) trends in tumor location and pathological features; (3) evolution of treatment modalities; and (4) survival outcomes.Results:A total of 15,644 patients were included in the analysis, with 12,591 males and 3,053 females, the male-to-female gender ration was approximately 4∶1; the mean age was (61.2±9.5) years. The tumor sites were mainly concentrated in the esophagogastric junction (EGJ) (57.4%), followed by the antrum (25.9%). The incidence of EGJ cancer initially rose and then declined. However, gastric antrum tumors remained stable, and gastric body tumors showed a slow upward trend after 2020, accounting for 16.7%. In terms of pathological types, poorly differentiated carcinoma was the most prevalent, accounting for 55.9%, followed by moderately differentiated carcinoma (24.2%), mucinous adenocarcinoma (or signet ring cell carcinoma,14.1%), neuroendocrine carcinoma (4.8%), and well-differentiated carcinoma (0.9%). The proportion of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma showed a significant upward trend overall as well, peaking at 65.6% in 2022 and decreasing to 57.5% in 2023. Mucinous adenocarcinoma (or signet ring cell carcinoma) exhibited fluctuations with a first increase followed by a decrease: it peaked at 17.3% in 2018, dropped sharply to 8.4% in 2022, and rose back to 13.8% in 2023. The proportions of well-differentiated adenocarcinoma, moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, and neuroendocrine tumors remained stable year by year. In terms of pathological staging, the overall proportions of gastric cancer at Stage 0, Stage I, Stage II, Stage III, and Stage IVa were 0.5%, 17.3%, 25.1%, 54.9%, and 2.3%, respectively. For Stage III, its proportion was 74.6% in 2013, which decreased to 46.4% by 2023. Stages I and II gastric cancer showed an upward trend, with their proportions rising from 10.2% and 12.1% in 2013 to nearly 21.0% and 29.6% in 2023, respectively. Between 2013 and 2023, the proportion of patients who received surgery alone continued to decrease, with this proportion dropping to 34.7% in 2023. In contrast, the number of patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy increased year by year, reaching 54.2% in 2023. Since 2017, the application of perioperative chemotherapy has gradually increased, rising to 11.1% in 2023. Immunotherapy showed an almost synchronous growth trend with perioperative chemotherapy. However, targeted therapy exhibited a downward trend after a period of growth. There were 10,704 cases of open surgery (68.4%), 4,744 cases of laparoscopic surgery (30.3%), and 193 cases of transthoracic surgery (1.2%). Pathological margin positivity was observed in 443 cases (2.8%), and the volume of gastric cancer surgeries gradually increased, peaked in 2021 before subsequently decreasing gradually. However, the volume of laparoscopic surgeries did not decrease; instead, it showed an upward trend. The main resection method for EGJ tumors was total gastrectomy, accounting for 78.5% of the total, followed by proximal gastrectomy, which accounted for 21.5%. After total gastrectomy, esophagojejunal Roux-en-Y anastomosis was the primary anastomotic method, and for proximal gastrectomy, the main anastomotic method was esophagogastric anastomosis, which accounted for 68.0% of the total. For distal gastrectomy, Billroth II anastomosis was the most common anastomotic technique, accounting for 92.7% of these procedures. The overall incidence of postoperative complications was 14.5% (2,264/15,644), among which the incidence of severe complications (grades III-IV) was 4.5% (706/15,644). The entire cohort was followed up with for (47.1±36.8) months, and the 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year overall survival rates were 86.4%, 65.9%, and 58.1%, respectively. For patients with stage 0, I, II, III, and IV gastric adenocarcinoma, the 1-year overall survival rates were 95.7%, 98.0%, 89.4%, 81.0%, and 49.1%, respectively; the 3-year overall survival rates were 92.1%, 94.6%, 81.9%, 51.4%, and 14.7%, respectively; and the 5-year overall survival rates were 89.4%, 91.7%, 75.1%, 41.5%, and 10.0%, respectively. For patients with stage I, II, III, and IV gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma, the 1-year overall survival rates were 96.7%, 91.1%, 73.8%, and 52.6%, respectively; the 3-year overall survival rates were 87.2%, 69.6%, 46.1%, and 32.1%, respectively; and the 5-year overall survival rates were 87.2%, 62.2%, 36.7%, and 32.1%, respectively.Conclusions:Gastric cancer in Shanxi Province is characterized by a male predominance, a high prevalence of tumors at the esophagogastric junction, a large proportion of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and presentation at advanced stages (predominantly Stage III). The detection rate of early gastric cancer has been increasing year by year, the volume of laparoscopic surgeries has been on the rise annually, and the treatment model has shifted from single surgery to comprehensive treatment.

Objective To investigate the regulations of lymphatic metastasis of rectal carcinoma which can provide help of clinical diagnosis and treatments.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed of 222 patients with rectal carcinoma who underwent surgical resection from November 2006 to January 2012.Summarize the relevance of each factor and lymph node metastasis by logistic regression analysis.Results (1) Gender and lymph node metastasis has no significant correlation (x2 =0.000,P ＞ 0.05).(2) Lymph node metastasis rate reduced with increasing age and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =5.001,P ＜ 0.05).(3) There is no significant difference between tumor location and lymph node metastasis rate (x2 =0.052,P ＞ 0.05),when the distance between anal rectal cancer and the anus was closer,the tendency of lymph node metastasis was higher,and there has the obvious correlation with lymph node metastasis rate of its size,2.5 to 5.5 cm group and more than 5.5 cm lymph node metastasis rate was significantly higher than less than 2.5 cm group with a significant difference (x2 =2.267,P ＜ 0.05).(4) Tumor invasion of the intestinal circumference was closely related with lymph node metastasis rate (x2 =2.323,P ＜0.01).(5) Lymph node metastasis rate was closely related to the depth of invasion,metastasis rate increased with the depth of invasion increasing(x2 =2.277,P ＜0.05).(6) Lymph node metastasis was significantly higher with the decrease of the degree of tumor differentiation (x2 =4.322,P ＜ 0.01).Logistic regression analysis showed that the degree of tumor differentiation,infiltration and invasion of intestinal circumference diameter lymph node metastasis influential,OR (95 ％ CI) was 5.562 (0.105-0.444),2.178 (0.144-0.971),1.563 (0.038-8.613) respectively (P ＜0.01).Conclusion The lymphatic metastasis of rectal carcinoma is related to age,tumor size,intestinal circumference invasion,depth of tumor invasion and the differentiating degree of the tumor,and the differentiating degree is the major factor.

Objective To evaluate whether the gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) questionnaire (GerdQ) symptom score could reflect the acid exposure indicated by 24-hour esophageal pH monitoring in patients with GERD, and to further validate the clinical application value of GerdQ.Methods From November 2008 to March 2010, 134 GERD patients from outpatient department with heartburn and acid reflux symptoms were enrolled.All the patients had undergone endoscopy examination, 24-hour esophageal pH monitoring and GerdQ scoring.According to 24-hour esophageal pH monitoring result, acid exposure group and none acid exposure group was divided by the percentage of time that pH was lower than 4 over 4.2% or DeMeester score over 14.72, the difference of GerdQ score was assessed.The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of GerdQ score was drawn according to DeMeester score and the percentage of time that pH was lower than 4 as the gold standard.With SPSS 17.0 statistical software, the ratio was compared with the u test and Chi-square test, comparison between groups with t test.Results The BMI of acid exposure group was higher than that of none acid exposure group(t= 2.365, P= 0.019).The GerdQ score of acid exposure group (8.51± 2.34) was significantly higher than that of none acid exposure group (6.67 ± 2.79), the difference was statistically significant (t = 4.002, P = 0.000) .ROC curve was drawn according to DeMeester score over 14.72 as gold standard; the area under curve (AUC) was 0.70.When the critical value of GerdQ score was 7.5, Youden index was up to 0.3365, the sensitivity of diagnosis was 0.6909 and specificity was 0.6454.The percentage of time that PH was lower than 4 over 4.2% as the gold standard, the AUC of GerdQ score was 0.663.When the critical value of GerdQ score was 7.5, Youden index was up to 0.2790, the sensitivity of diagnosis was 0.6600 and specificity was 0.6190.Conclusions GerdQ score greater than 7.5 can better reflect acid exposure at the lower esophageal.There is stronger association between GerdQ score with the DeMeester acid exposure score over 14.72 than with the percentage of time that pH lower than 4 over 4.2% as the critical value for acid exposure.Obesity may aggravate the transient lower esophageal sphincter relaxation leading to occurrence of GERD symptoms.