title: Tongue images and tongue coating microbiome in patients with colorectal cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tongue diagnosis, as a unique method of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), discriminates physiological functions and pathological conditions by observing the changes of the tongue coating.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the differences of tongue images and tongue coating microbiome between patients with colorectal cancer and healthy people.
  
  
  METHODS
  The tongue diagnostic information acquisition system was used to photograph the tongue images and analyze the thickness of the tongue coatings in patients with colorectal cancer and healthy people. The next-generation sequencing technology was used to determine the V2-V4 hypervariable region of 16S rDNA to investigate the microbial community structure and diversity on the tongue coating.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The tongue coatings in patients with colorectal cancer were obvious thickening compared with tongue images in healthy people. The microbial community structure on the tongue coating was different between patients with colorectal cancer and healthy people.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tongue diagnosis may provide important leads towards novel microbiome-related diagnostic tools and tongue coating microbiome may be a novel biomarker for characterizing patient with colorectal cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China. Electronic address: ShuwenHan985@163.com.
authors.forename: Shuwen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: The Cancer Center, Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui Province 241001, China. Electronic address: 924441173@qq.com.
authors.forename: Zhaoning
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ji
mesh_terms: D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota; D061848:Optical Imaging; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014059:Tongue / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
keywords: Colorectal cancer; Microbiome; Tongue coating; Tongue images