Figure 1.
Literature search strategy.
Notes: The databases “PubMed”, “Embase”, and “Cochrane” were searched for literature published up to August 11, 2017. Forty-two articles were assessed for eligibility after identification and screening. To present a more comprehensive role of flora in colorectal cancer, the flora appearing in the 42 articles were used as the medical subject headings (MeSH) and the pertinent literature was retrieved. A further 15 articles were added after identification and screening.