About the Authors

Takashi Murakami

Affiliations AntiCancer, Inc., San Diego, California, United States of America, Department of Surgery, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan

Yukihiko Hiroshima

Affiliations AntiCancer, Inc., San Diego, California, United States of America, Department of Surgery, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan

Yong Zhang

Affiliation AntiCancer, Inc., San Diego, California, United States of America

Takashi Chishima

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan

Kuniya Tanaka

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan

Michael Bouvet

Affiliation Department of Surgery, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America

Itaru Endo

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan

Robert M. Hoffman

all@anticancer.com

Affiliations AntiCancer, Inc., San Diego, California, United States of America, Department of Surgery, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests: Yong Zhang is an employee of AntiCancer Inc. Takashi Murakami and Robert M. Hoffman are unpaid affiliates of AntiCancer Inc. Yukihiko Hiroshima is a former unpaid affiliates of AntiCancer Inc. Robert M. Hoffman is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board Member. AntiCancer Inc. played an indirect role through the participation of the coauthors. There are no other competing interests. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TM RMH. Performed the experiments: TM YH YZ. Analyzed the data: TM YH YZ TC KT MB IE RMH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RMH. Wrote the paper: TM RMH.