Objective. To identify the effect of standing mats on biomechanical characteristics of lower limbs and perceived exertion for healthy adult individuals during a prolonged standing task. Methods. 32 healthy college students were recruited in the randomized and cross-over designed trial according to the effect size and statistical power. After collecting the anthropometric data, each participant was asked to finish 2 sessions of 4-hour prolonged standing tasks on standing mats (MS) and hard ground (GS) in a random order and with a 72-hour interval rest. The plantar pressure distribution, foot morphology, and scores of the BESS (balance error scoring system) would be recorded pre- and posteach task. The Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) would be collected during the whole task. Paired-samples t test was adopted to analyse the before and after difference within group and independent-samples t test was adopted to analyse the difference between groups separately. Results. (1) A prolonged standing task on both MS and GS have a negative effect on RPE and balance performance. (2) The negative effect on RPE and balance performance induced by MS is significantly smaller than that induced by GS. (3) Compared to GS, prolonged standing on MS has a lower peak plantar pressure and an implicit decrease in navicular drop and AHI (arch index). Conclusion. Standing mat tends to alleviate the fatigue induced by prolonged standing in lower limbs, optimize the distribution of plantar pressure, and maintain the stability.

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has dramatically changed cancer treatment, opening novel opportunities to cure malignant diseases. To date, most prevalently targeted immune checkpoints are programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), with many others being under extensive investigations. However, according to available data, only a fraction of patients may respond to ICI therapy. Additionally, this therapy may cause severe adverse immune-related side effects, such as diarrhea, headache, muscle weakness, rash, hepatitis and leucopenia, although most of them are not fatal, they can affect the patient's treatment outcome and quality of life. On the other hand, growing evidence has shown that phytochemicals with anticancer effects may combine ICI therapy to augment the safety and effectiveness of the treatment against cancer while reducing the adverse side effects. In this review, we summarize the state of art in the various experiments and clinical application of ICIs plus phytochemicals, with a focus on their combined use as a novel therapeutic strategy to cure cancer.