To investigate the performance of methylated SEPT9 (mSEPT9) in assessing the surgical therapeutic effect and prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Blood samples before surgery and 1 and 7 days after surgery were obtained from 120 CRC patients, and mSEPT9 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) assays were performed. The mean plasma mSEPT9 level showed 57.6-times and 131.1-times decrease 1 day and 7 days after surgery, respectively. In contrast, mean CEA levels showed 2.51-and 2.70-times decrease 1 and 7 days after surgery. 86.7% of patients can be assessed by mSEPT9 while 44.2% can be assessed by CEA. Positive mSEPT9 detection before surgery correlated with higher risk of death after surgery. mSEPT9 is effective for CRC postsurgical assessment and prognosis prediction.

In this brief, a novel planar topology is presented for the design of reconfigurable-bandwidth dual-wideband bandpass filters with fixed operation frequency and controllable stopband. The proposed design is started from a three-mode passive filtering structure with five transmission zeros, whose second and third passband edges can be independently allocated. Then, two PIN diodes are used as the tuning elements. With the help of these PIN diodes, three bandwidth states can be achieved. In contrast to the previous works with only independently tunable single passband edges, the first and fourth passband edges of the proposed filter can be reconfigurable in same absolute ranges, while the rest two ones are unaltered. For validation, a reconfigurable prototype is designed and measured. The measured results agree well with the theoretical analysis, verifying a simple design approach of DWB BPFs with new reconfigurable-bandwidth property.

In this paper, a series of novel reconfigurable-bandwidth notched-wideband bandpass filters (NWB BPFs) with controllable notch bands are proposed. The proposed filters start from a passive filtering structure, which is formed by a terminated cross-shaped resonator (TCSR) with a pair of parallel-coupled lines and two open-ended stubs. Theoretical analysis finds that the filter bandwidth can be independently controlled by the TCSR, while the center frequencies and bandwidth of notch bands are mainly controlled by the rest parts. According to this, a BPF with controllable notch bands can be designed. To achieve the reconfigurable-bandwidth NWB BPFs with controllable notch band, whose bandwidth and center frequency can be maintained unchanged under different work states, two PIN diodes and a varactor are employed. By controlling the work states of PIN diodes, three bandwidth states can be achieved with fixed center frequency. By controlling the applied voltage on the varactor, other NWB BPF with independently tunable lower passband edge can be realized. For verification, three prototypes are designed and measured. The measured results agree well with the theoretical analysis and simulated ones, verifying a simple and effective design approach of reconfigurable-bandwidth NWB BPFs.

In this brief, a new and planar topology is presented for the synthesis design of Chebyshev wideband bandpass filters (WB BPFs) with independently reconfigurable lower passband edge. The proposed design is based on a new T-shaped resonator, whose topology and parameters can be directly derived from a 5th-order Chebyshev LC circuit. Then, a varactor is employed as the tuning element. By controlling the supplied voltage on the varactor, the lower passband edge of the proposed filter can be independently tunable in continue manners, while the upper one is maintained fixed. For verification, a reconfigurable prototype is designed and measured. As the measured and simulated results agree well with each other, a simple and high-efficiency design of reconfigurable-bandwidth WB BPFs is verified.

A novel quarter-wavelength cross-shaped resonator (CSR) is presented in this brief for the design of equal-ripple dual-wideband bandpass filter (DWB BPF) with minimum design parameters. The proposed CSR is composed of a pair of parallel-coupled lines (PCLs) with short-and open-ended stubs. To extract the transmission poles and zeros, rigorous scattering-parameters and ABCD-matrix theories with even-odd-mode analysis method are used. After theoretical analysis, it is found that two passbands with equal-ripple responses can be realized on both sides of the operation frequency. In contrast to the reported DWB BPFs with complex structures, the proposed one is only formed by a quarter-wavelength CSR and featured as minimum design parameters. To verify this, a prototype is designed and fabricated. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones, verifying a simple design approach of equal-ripple DWB BPFs.

Background: The panorama and details of quantitative intratumor heterogeneity have not been fully investigated in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with solitary lesion without distal metastasis, and its influences on sequencing interpretation and therapeutic strategies have not been explored. Methods: Cancer tissues and matched blood from 70 sporadic CRC patients were collected and were divided into two cohorts. Four individual tissue biopsies were obtained from each of the 47 patients (multi-sample cohort). One random cancer tissue biopsy was obtained from each of the rest 23 patients (single-sample cohort). A 10 mL of blood was collected from all patients and the circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) was extracted. A 605-gene panel was used for targeted sequencing with tissue and paired blood. Results: Mutational landscape revealed significantly higher mutational frequency in APC, CARD11 and CSMD3 in multi-sample cohort than single-sample cohort (P< 0.05). The number of mutations and the ratio of trunk, shared and branch mutations showed extensive heterogeneity in multi-sample cohort, and the percentage of trunk mutations in major driver genes, including APC, TP53 and KRAS, was higher than 70%. A total of 929 mutations were detected in tissue/blood in multi-sample group, with 921(99.1%) from tissue and 472(50.8%) from blood (464 common mutations,49.9%). In contrast, 394 mutations were detected in tissue/blood in single-sample group, with 231 (58.6%) from tissue and 219 (55.6%) from blood (56 common mutations, 11.9%). The number of mutations of major driver genes detected in tissue was higher than that in blood in the multi-sample cohort, while it was similar in the single-sample group. Quantification analysis revealed differential correlation between tissue and blood VAF in trunk, shared and branch mutations. Meanwhile, VAF of trunk mutations was significantly higher than shared mutations and branch mutations. VAF exhibited significant differences among distinct stages, locations, differentiation and sex status. Conclusion: Characteristic extensive heterogeneity was revealed for solitary CRC without distal metastasis. Multi-regional biopsy was necessary for comprehensive mutation detection in CRC.