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Detection of digestive malignancies and post-gastrectomy complications via gastrointestinal fluid examination

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Abstract

To date, gastric carcinoma (GC) is one of the common and fatal digestive malignancies worldwide. The prognosis of GC is not always satisfactory because of late diagnosis. Scholars are keen on discovering novel accurate and economical biomarkers in body liquids for GC screening to detect and evaluate the lesion before the results of imaging techniques are obtained. While traditional serum assays have limited sensitivity and specificity, gastrointestinal juice may provide relevant specific biomarkers because of its close contact with the tumor. Herein, the current progress in the relationship between gastrointestinal fluid analyses and GC is systematically and comprehensively reviewed. The detection of gastric juice pH, fluorescence spectrum, cytology, Helicobacter pylori-associated markers, nitrosamines, conventional tumor markers, amino acids, proteomics, microRNAs, long noncoding RNAs, protein-coding genes, vitamin C, etc., and combination tests of different category markers could provide important diagnostic and prognostic clues for gastrointestinal diseases. Particularly, early GC may be efficiently screened using gastric juice. Gastrointestinal fluid examination could also predict the adverse effects of postgastrectomy, such as pancreatic leakage, fistula, and abscess. Gastric fluid markers should be further studied to reveal the early predicators of malignancy and complications. The methods for obtaining the samples of gastrointestinal juice with minimum incision should also be comprehensively investigated.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely want to thank the reviewers for the constructive comments and suggestions. This paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81572350). The funder did not take part in the design, data collection, and analysis of the study and the preparation and publication of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China

    Lei Huang & Aman Xu

  2. German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

    Lei Huang

  3. Department of General Surgery, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China

    Aman Xu

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  1. Lei Huang
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Correspondence to Lei Huang.

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Huang, L., Xu, A. Detection of digestive malignancies and post-gastrectomy complications via gastrointestinal fluid examination. Front. Med. 11, 20–31 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11684-016-0493-4

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