Postoperative complications after robotic resection of colorectal cancer:An analysis based on 5-year experience at a large-scale center

BACKGROUND As a common gastrointestinal malignancy,colorectal cancer(CRC)poses a serious health threat globally.Robotic surgery is one of the future trends in surgical treatment of CRC.Robotic surgery has several technical advantages over laparoscopic surgery,including 3D visualization,elimination of the fulcrum effect,and better ergonomic positioning,which together lead to better surgical outcomes and faster recovery.However,analysis of independent factors of postoperative complications after robotic surgery is still insufficient.AIM To analyze the incidence and risk factors for postoperative complications after robotic surgery in patients with CRC.METHODS In total,1040 patients who had undergone robotic surgical resection for CRC between May 2015 and May 2020 were analyzed retrospectively.Postoperative complications were categorized according to the Clavien-Dindo(C-D)classification,and possible risk factors were evaluated.RESULTS Among 1040 patients who had undergone robotic surgery for CRC,the overall,severe,local,and systemic complication rates were 12.2%,2.4%,8.8%,and 3.5%,respectively.Multivariate analysis revealed that multiple organ resection(P<0.001)and level III American Society of Anesthesiologists(ASA)score(P=0.006)were independent risk factors for overall complications.Multivariate analysis identified multiple organ resection(P<0.001)and comorbidities(P=0.029)as independent risk factors for severe complications(C-D grade III or higher).Regarding local complications,multiple organ resection(P=0.002)and multiple bowel resection(P=0.027)were independent risk factors.Multiple organ resection(P<0.001)and level III ASA score(P=0.007)were independent risk factors for systemic complications.Additionally,sigmoid colectomy had a lower incidence of overall complications(6.4%;P=0.006)and local complications(4.7%;P=0.028)than other types of colorectal surgery.CONCLUSION Multiple organ resection,level III ASA score,comorbidities,and multiple bowel resection were risk factors for postoperative complications,with multiple organ resection being the most likely.

Role of minimally invasive techniques in gastrointestinal surgery:Current status and future perspectives

In recent years,the incidence of gastrointestinal cancer has remained high.Currently,surgical resection is still the most effective method for treating gastrointestinal cancer.Traditionally,radical surgery depends on open surgery.However,traditional open surgery inflicts great trauma and is associated with a slow recovery.Minimally invasive surgery,which aims to reduce postoperative complications and accelerate postoperative recovery,has been rapidly developed in the last two decades;it is increasingly used in the field of gastrointestinal surgery and widely used in early-stage gastrointestinal cancer.Nevertheless,many operations for gastrointestinal cancer treatment are still performed by open surgery.One reason for this may be the challenges of minimally invasive technology,especially when operating in narrow spaces,such as within the pelvis or near the upper edge of the pancreas.Moreover,some of the current literature has questioned oncologic outcomes after minimally invasive surgery for gastrointestinal cancer.Overall,the current evidence suggests that minimally invasive techniques are safe and feasible in gastrointestinal cancer surgery,but most of the studies published in this field are retrospective studies and casematched studies.Large-scale randomized prospective studies are needed to further support the application of minimally invasive surgery.In this review,we summarize several common minimally invasive methods used to treat gastrointestinal cancer and discuss the advances in the minimally invasive treatment of gastrointestinal cancer in detail.

Calcitriol enhances pyrazinamide treatment of murine tuberculosis

Background: Tuberculosis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in humans worldwide. There is an urgent need for new and effective drugs to treat tuberculosis and shorten the duration of tuberculosis therapy. 1, 25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 (1,25 (OH)2D3) has been reported to have a synergistic effect with pyrazinamide (PZA) in killing tubercle bacilli in vitro. The addition of 1,25 (OH)2D3 to standard tuberculosis treatment should benefit patients if the adjunctive drug has a synergistic effect in vivo. Thus, in this study, calcitriol (bioactive 1,25 (OH)2D3) was administered to mice undergoing treatment for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection with PZA, a first-line anti-tuberculosis drug, to determine whether vitamin D3 enhances the therapeutic effect. Methods: C57BL/6 female mice were infected with the M.tb H37Rv strain through aerosol exposure. Calcitriol and PZA, either alone or in combination, were orally administered to the M.tb infected mice. The effect of calcitriol on PZA activity was determined by evaluating the bacterial burden and analyzing the histopathological lesions in the lungs and spleen. To investigate the expression of inflammatory cytokines and anti-microbial peptide genes, we determined the transcriptional levels of interferon-γ(IFN-γ), interleukin-4 (IL-4), mouse β-defensin-2 (mBD2), and cathelicidin LL-37 through real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The protein levels of IFN-γ were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Differences between groups were analyzed with independent samples t-test or one-way analysis of variance. Results: Calcitriol alone had little effect on tuberculosis infection, whereas PZA, compared with saline control treatment, decreased the bacterial burden (spleens: PZA vs. saline, 4.82 ± 0.22 vs. 5.22 ± 0.40 Log10 colony-forming units [CFU]/gram, t = 2.13, P < 0.05;lungs: PZA vs. saline, 5.55 ± 0.15 vs. 6.83 ± 0.46 Log10 CFU/gram, t = 6.56, P < 0.01) and pathological lesions in the lungs. Simultaneous administration of calcitriol with PZA, compared with PZA alone, decreased the bacterial load (spleen: calcitriol + PZA vs. PZA, 4.37 ± 0.13 vs. 4.82 ± 0.22 Log10 CFU/gram, t = 4.36, P < 0.01;lung: calcitriol + PZA vs. PZA, 5.03 ± 0.32 vs. 5.55 ± 0.15 Log10 CFU/gram, t = 3.58, P < 0.01) and attenuated the lung lesions (gross pathological score: calcitriol + PZA vs. PZA, 3.25 ± 0.50 vs. 2.50 ± 0.58, t = 1.96, P < 0.05;affected area of total lung area: calcitriol + PZA vs. PZA, 30.75%± 6.50% vs. 21.55%± 2.99%, t = 2.66, P < 0.05). Further studies demonstrated calcitriol significantly increased the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 but suppressed production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IFN-γ(IL-4: calcitriol vs. saline, 5.69 ± 0.50 vs. 2.80 ± 0.56 fold of control, t= 6.74, P < 0.01;IFN-γ: calcitriol vs. saline, 1.36 ± 0.11 vs. 4.13 ± 0.83 fold of control, t= 5.77, P < 0.01). In addition, calcitriol alone or in combination with PZA significantly enhanced the transcriptional level of anti-microbial peptides (cathelicidin LL-37: calcitriol vs. saline, 10.59 ± 1.03 vs. 2.80 ± 0.90 fold of control, t = 9.85, P < 0.01;mBD2: calcitriol vs. saline, 7.92 ± 0.62 vs. 1.79 ± 0.45 fold of control, t = 13.82, P < 0.01), whereas PZA exerted a negative effect on anti-microbial peptide gene expression. Conclusions: Calcitriol as adjunctive treatment can result in beneficial treatment outcomes in M.tb infection by suppressing the inflammatory response and up-regulating the expression of anti-microbial peptides. These results indicate the feasibility of using calcitriol adjunctively with standard chemotherapy for the treatment of M.tb infection.

DNA aptamer selected for specific recognition of prostate cancer cells and clinical tissues

Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in men lack of efficient early diagnosis and therapeutics,calling for effective molecular probes.Herein,we performed cell-based systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment（cell-SELEX） to obtain specific recognition of human prostate cancer cells PC-3M.Four aptamers were successfully obtained that can bind to target cells with high affinity and specificity.A 51-nt truncated sequence named Xq-2-C1 was identified after further elaborative analysis on the secondary structure.More importantly,the achieved aptamer Xq-2-C1 not only demonstrated excellent specific to target cells,but also revealed specific recognition to clinical prostate cancer tissue.The tissue imaging results showed that Xq-2-C1 had better recognition ratio for clinical prostate cancer tissue samples（85%） compared to the random sequence（9%）.These results demonstrate that these newly generated aptamers would furnish potential applications in the early diagnosis and clinical treatment of prostate cancer.