1Clinical Laboratory Department, Yame General Hospital, Yame, Japan;

2Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Japan;

3Department of Pathology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Japan;

4Kumashiro Hospital, Kurume, Japan;

5University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

Correspondence: Hiroyuki Suzuki, MD, PhD. E-mail: [email protected].