Genetic polymorphisms are thought to be associated with the individual difference in the esophageal cancer treatment.A large number of evidences show that 5-FU and cisplatin metabolism,apoptosis and angiogenesis related gene SNPs are associated with the therapeutic sensitivity of esophageal cancer.

Abnormal methylation of the tumor-related genes is frequently found in the development of gastric cancer.Cancer cells exhibit two opposing methylation abnormalities:genome-wide hypomethylation and certain tumor suppressor gene hypermethylation.Furthermore,it seems that the level of DNA methylation is closely associated with the prognosis of gastric cancer.Recently,a great deal of research has been conducted to reveal the corelation of DNA methylation and gastric cancer.

CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) refers to a set of multiple gene promoter CpG island methylation phenotype which exists in tumor at the same time.Many studies show that CIMP is ubiquitous in gastric cancer,which is related to the pathogenesis,diagnosis,patient's condition,prognosis and curative effect of gastric cancer.

In recent year, one of the hot topics in esophageal carcinoma research is the impaired gene expression resulted from hypermethylation within the promoter regions of rumor suppressor genes. Many studies suggested that DNA methylation plays an important role in the initiation, invasion, and metastasis of esophageal carcinoma. DNA methylation spectrum in peripheral blood may be used as markers for early diagnose, prognosis prediction and follow up in esophageal cancer patients. De-methylation of tumor suppressor genes may become a target of esophageal carcinoma therapy.

Lycopene is an important natural carotenoid,and is widely found in human tissues and blood,with the prevention of many types of cancer,anti-aging effect.It can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells of oral malignancy,and increasing of gap-junction communication between cells to prevent oral cancer,and also can inhibit the development of colorectal cancer by reducing the activity of matrix metalloproteinase.It plays the role of anti-metastasis through enhancing the expression of anti-metastatic gene nm23-H1.

Recently,many studies find that microRNA plays a key role in the development,diagnosis,treatment and prevention of gastric cancer.It is confirmed that miR-451 can be used as a useful biomarker for the screening of gastric cancer.Studies also show that miR-203 and miR-21 may become diagnostic markers of gastric cancer.MicroRNA can play the role of oncogenes,and also can play the role of tumor suppressor gene,such as miR-141 plays the role of tumor suppressor gene through inhibition of the positive fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 gene expression.

Isocitrate dehydrogenases(IDHs)are considered as key enzymes in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Recurrent mutations in the IDH1 and IDH2 genes are recently found in several human cancers. Those point mutations specifically affect IDH1 and IDH2 active site arginine residues and confer a neomorphic enzyme function of directly catalyzing α-ketoglutarate(α-KG)to R-2-hydroxyglutarate(R-2-HG). R-2-HG can com-petitively inhibits α-KG-dependent enzymes and may therefore contribute to the occurrence and development of tumor. In addition,Mutation status of IDH1 and IDH2 are closely relative to the progress and prognosis of cer-tain tumor. Thus IDH1 and IDH2 are considered to be promising biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis and targeted therapy.

Objective To explore the TCM pathogenesis based on the analyses of TCM pattern elements. Methods TCM pattern elements of 84 patients with middle-late pancreatic cancer to analyze the TCM disease location and characteristics by their frequency and the contribution scores. Results A total of 84 patients were included, TCM disease location with the top 10 rank of the contribution scores were spleen, stomach, liver, gallbladder, kidney, intestine, lung, heart, spleen, stomach, while they were significantly higher than others (P<0.05). And the TCM pattern elements with the top 5 rank of the contribution scores were qi deficiency, dampness, heat, blood stasis, toxin, while they were significantly higher than others (P<0.01). Conclusions TCM disease locations of middle-late pancreatic cancer were mainly in spleen and stomach, and TCM pattern element were excessive patterns with qi deficiency, deficiency patterns with dampness, heat, blood stasis and toxin.

Innate immunity plays an important role in inflammatory injury after cerebral ischemia,and inflammasome is considered to be a key factor.Inflammasome is a macromolecular protein complex,can recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns and damage-associated molecular patterns,and mediate immune inflammatory responses.Studies have shown that cerebral ischemia can induce the acute activation of the NLRP1 and NLRP3 inflammasomes.This article reviews the structure,activation and regulation of inflammasome,and the roles of inflammasome in cerebral ischemia.

ObjectiveTo investigate the methylation status of multiple genes in plasma and tumor tissues and its application in molecular diagnosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).Methods Methylation specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) was used to detect methylation status of 5 tumor suppressor genes,such as adenomatous polyposis coli ( APC ),retinoic acid receptor-beta2 ( RARβ2 ),E-cadherin (CDH1),cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor4A (p16INK4α) and ras association domain family member 1 A (RASSF1A) in tumour tissues,adjacent normal tissues and plasma which obtained 1 d preoperative and 7 d postoperative in 76 cases with ESCC.60 healthy volunteers were randomly selected as a control which were age-matched and sex-matched.Chi square test was used to analyze DNA methylation rates of 5 genes in various groups of tissue and plasma samples; Kappa test was used to compare the consistency of DNA methylation in the plasma samples and tissue samples,and their correlation was analyzed by Spearman correlation test; Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity for single gene detection and 5 genes joint detection for diagnosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.ResultsThe methylation rates of APC,RARβ2,CDH1,p16INK4α and RASSF1A in tumour tissues of patients with ESCC were 44.7％ ( 34/76),72.4％ ( 55/76 ),72.4％ (55/76),86.8％ ( 66/76 ),55.3％ (42/76),respectively,which were significantly higher than that in the corresponding adjacent normal tissues [ 6.6％ ( 5/76 ),3.9％ ( 3/76 ),3.9％ ( 3/76 ),3.9％ ( 3/76 ),2.6％ ( 2/76 ),x2 =29.01,75.39,75.39,105.34,57.18,all P ＜ 0.001 ].The methylation rates of above 5 genes in patients' plasma were 42.1％ ( 32/76 ),63.2％ ( 48/76 ),63.2％ ( 48/76 ),71.1％ ( 54/76 ),50.0％ ( 38/76 ),respectively,which were significantly higher than that of control group [3.3％ (2/60),3.3％ (2/60),1.7％ ( 1/60),3.3％ (2/60),1.7％ (1/60),x2 =26.88,51.62,55.01,63.48,38.30,all P ＜ 0.001 ].The methylation consistency was favorable or well between plasma and tumour tissues in patients with ESCC ( Kappa value was 0.679,0.791,0.791,0.542 and 0.895,respectively.all P ＜0.001 ).In single-gene detection for patients' plasma,methylation,the sensitivity of 5 genes was 42.1％ ( 32/76 ),63.2％ ( 48/76 ),63.2％ ( 48/76 ),71.1％ ( 54/76 ),50.0％ ( 38/76 ),respectively.The specificity was 96.7％ ( 58/60 ),96.7％ ( 58/60 ),98.3％ (59/60),96.7％ (58/60),98.3％ (59/60),respectively.The area under curve (AUC) of ROC was 0.694 [95％ confidence interval( CI)0.606 - 0.782 ) ],0.799 ( 95％ CI 0.723 - 0.875 ),0.807 ( 95％CI 0.733 - 0.882),0.839 ( 95 ％ CI 0.769 - 0.908 ) and 0.742 ( 95 ％ CI 0.659 - 0.824 ),respectively.In united testing of 5 genes,the sensitivity was 80.3％ and the specificity was 88.3％,AUC was 0.843 (95％CI 0.773 -0.913 ).The sensitivity of united testing was significantly higher than that of single-gene detection of APC and RASSF1A(x2 =23.30,15.33 ; P ＜ 0.001 ),except RARβ2,CDH1 and p16INK4α (x2 =5.48,5.48,1.75; P =0.019,0.019,0.186);There was no significant differences in specificity between united testing and single-gene detection (x2 =1.922,1.922,3.348,1.922,3.348,all P ＞ 0.05 ).Conclusions The methylation consistency is favorable or well between tumour tissues and plasma in patients with ESCC.There is no significant superior in diagnosing ESCC with united testing of multiple tumor suppressor genes methylation in plasma than with single-gene detection.But the sensitivity of the former is better than the latter.