About the Authors

Xiujing Sun

Contributed equally to this work with: Xiujing Sun, Jihui Julia Qiu, Shengtao Zhu, Shutian Zhang

Affiliations Department of Medicine and Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Jihui Julia Qiu

Contributed equally to this work with: Xiujing Sun, Jihui Julia Qiu, Shengtao Zhu, Shutian Zhang

Affiliations Department of Medicine and Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Shengtao Zhu

Contributed equally to this work with: Xiujing Sun, Jihui Julia Qiu, Shengtao Zhu, Shutian Zhang

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Bangwei Cao

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Lin Sun

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Sen Li

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Peng Li

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Shutian Zhang

Contributed equally to this work with: Xiujing Sun, Jihui Julia Qiu, Shengtao Zhu, Shutian Zhang

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Shuo Dong

sdong@bcm.edu

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SD. Performed the experiments: XS JJQ SZ LS SL. Analyzed the data: XS JJQ BC PL SZ SD. Wrote the paper: XS JJQ SD.