Objective: The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of application of surgical strategies at different cancer stages on the survival of gallbladder cancer (GBC) patients. Methods: The patients with GBC were divided into 3 groups according to their received surgical strategies: simple resection (full-thickness cholecystectomy for removal of primary tumor site), radical resection (gallbladder bed removal combined with partial hepatectomy), and palliative surgery (treatment at advanced stages). The overall survival (OS) of GBC patients who were received different surgical strategies was compared. Results: Survival analysis showed that radical resection had a best OS at clinical stage II, and simple resection had a best OS at tumor clinical stage IV. Cox hazard proportional regression analysis showed that more advanced tumor stages, tumor location of gallbladder body or neck, and CA199 ≥ 27 U/mL were the major risk factors for the OS of GBC. Conclusions: At tumor stage II, radical resection should be the most effective surgical therapy for GBC. However, the effect of radical resection at advanced stages could be restricted. The utilization of radical resection should be increased at tumor stage II for a better long-term survival outcome.

Genetic diversity of seven cultivated populations of Codonopsis pilosula Nannf. from Longxi County, Gansu Province of China was estimated using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. The 17 selected RAPD primers amplified 205 polymorphic bands out of a total of 235 (87.2%). Nei's gene-diversity statistics and population differentiation parameters based on AMOVA analysis indicated that the cultivated C. pilosula populations remained a high level of genetic diversity with Hs = 0.299 and I = 0.450. A greater proportion of genetic diversity was found within (77%) rather than among (23%) the populations. In addition, we also detected that populations from different altitudes had a considerable genetic differentiation after 40 years of cultivation at the same site. Populations from higher altitude had lower genetic diversity than those from lower altitude. Our results suggested that irregular and sparse cultivation practices, i.e., random collecting, preserving, and planting seeds of the medicinal species without deliberate selection, might be an efficient way to conserve genetic resources of medicinal plants, in addition to their effective uses.

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