Few studies have explored the effectiveness of acupressure techniques on promoting bowel sounds. Evidence from this study suggests stimulation of the ST-36 acupressure point can increase bowel sound frequency for patients with colorectal cancer in the first three days after surgery. Application of this technique may improve a patient's comfort after surgery.

The transplantation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), such as bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) and adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), has shown beneficial effects in protecting transplanted tissues and cells...

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are typically cultivated on extracellular matrix (ECM) protein-coated dishes in xeno-free culture conditions. We supplemented mixed ECM proteins (laminin-511 and recombinant vitronectin, rVT) in culture...

Background: Previous animal studies have shown that certain respiratory oncoviruses can lead to tumorigenesis, especially influenza virus. However, no clinical studies other than animal studies have been conducted to test this hypothesis. Objective: To investigate the association between influenza and the risk of lung cancer using the Taiwan Cancer Registry Database (TCRD) and Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Methods: We identified a study cohort consisting of patients aged 40 years or above who were enrolled in the NHIRD between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2014. Among them, we identified patients with lung cancer (cases) and their matched controls (matched by age, sex, and disease risk score (DRS) at a ratio of 1:10). Multivariate conditional logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between exposure to influenza (timing and cumulative number) and risk of lung cancer. Results: We identified 32,063 cases and 320,627 matched controls. Influenza was associated with a 1.09fold increased risk of lung cancer (aOR 1.09, 95% CI 1.04-1.14, p < 0.0001). The risk of lung cancer increased slightly with cumulative exposure to influenza (1-2 exposures: aOR 1.05, 95% CI 1.00-1.11; 3-4 exposures: aOR 1.12, 95% CI 1.00-1.25; 5+ exposures: aOR 1.25, 95% CI 1.13-1.39). Conclusion: Exposure to influenza was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer and the risk increased with cumulative exposure to influenza. However, the lack of valid information on smoking could lead to confounding, and future studies collecting patients' smoking histories are warranted to validate the association between influenza and lung cancer.