Tumor size as a prognostic factor in patients with advanced gastric cancer in the lower third of the stomach

Table 1 Correlation between other clinicopathologic characteristics and tumor size n (%)

Factors	LST	SST	P
Gender			0.221
Male	148 (66.7)	150 (72.1)
Female	74 (33.3)	58 (27.9)
Age (yr)			0.209
< 60	119 (53.6)	124 (59.6)
≥ 60	103 (46.4)	84 (40.4)
Histological type			0.039
Differentiated	45 (20.3)	60 (28.8)
Undifferentiated	177 (79.7)	148 (71.2)
Borrmann type			0.000
I/II	50 (22.5)	111 (53.4)
III/IV	172 (77.5)	97 (46.6)
Lymph node metastasis			0.000
pN0	35 (15.8)	70 (33.7)
pN1	41 (18.5)	51 (24.5)
pN2	52 (23.4)	42 (20.2)
pN3	94 (42.3)	45 (21.6)
Depth of invasion			0.000
pT2	28 (12.6)	89 (42.8)
pT3	19 (8.6)	21 (10.1)
pT4a	175 (78.8)	98 (47.1)
TNM stage			0.000
IB	9 (4.1)	36 (17.3)
IIA	14 (6.3)	35 (16.8)
IIB	33 (14.9)	45 (21.6)
IIIA	30 (13.5)	35 (16.8)
IIIB	54 (24.3)	28 (13.5)
IIIC	82 (36.9)	29 (14.0)
Number of lymph nodes	8.02 ± 8.66	3.98 ± 5.65	0.000
MLR			0.000
0	35 (15.8)	70 (33.6)
1	37 (16.7)	46 (22.1)
2	41 (18.5)	43 (20.7)
3	109 (49.0)	49 (23.6)

LST: Large-sized tumor; SST: Small-sized tumor; MLR: Metastatic lymph node ratio; TNM: Tumor-nodes metastasis.

Table 2 Univariate analysis of the patients’ clinicopathological characteristics for overall survival

Factors	n	5-year OS (%)	χ2	P value
Gender			1.655	0.198
Male	298	54.8
Female	132	51.3
Age (yr)			0.012	0.911
< 60	242	52.6
≥ 60	188	55.1
Tumor size (cm)			78.184	0.000
< 4.8	208	76.7
≥ 4.8	222	32.9
Depth of invasion			69.581	0.000
pT2	117	82.5
pT3	40	56.5
pT4a	273	41.2
Histological type			0.835	0.361
Differentiated	105	66.5
Undifferentiated	325	49.8
Lymph node metastasis			138.815	0.000
pN0	105	85.9
pN1	92	73.0
pN2	94	40.4
pN3	139	21.7
MLR			139.034	0.000
0	70	85.9
1	118	70.1
2	93	54.1
3	149	23.4

OS: Overall 5-year survival rate; MLR: Metastatic lymph node ratio.

Table 3 Multiple stepwise regression analysis with the Cox proportional hazards model

Characteristics	B	SE	Wald	P value	RR	95%CI
Depth of invasion			23.143	0.000
pT3/pT2	0.604	0.228	7.032	0.008	1.829	1.171	2.857
pT4a/pT2	0.775	0.161	23.135	0.000	2.171	1.583	2.977
Lymph node metastasis			9.923	0.019
pN1/pN0	0.578	0.280	4.268	0.039	1.783	1.030	3.085
pN2/pN0	1.130	0.420	7.224	0.007	3.095	1.358	7.055
pN3/pN0	1.601	0.528	9.204	0.002	4.959	1.763	13.954
MLR	0.061	0.170	0.130	0.719	1.063	0.762	1.483
Tumor size (cm)	0.762	0.123	38.524	0.000	2.143	1.684	2.726

MLR: Metastatic lymph node ratio; CI: Confidence interval; RR: Relative risk; B: Borrmann.

Table 4 Survival based on pT and pN stages in the large-sized tumor and small-sized tumor groups

	n (5-yr OS, %)		χ2	P value
	LST	SST
pT2
pN0	9 (88.9)	36 (96.7)	0.260	0.610
pN1	11 (72.7)	26 (91.1)	0.000	0.986
pN2	4 (50.0)	16 (87.1)	0.066	0.797
pN3	4 (0.00)	11 (63.6)	7.661	0.006
pT3
pN0	3 (66.7)	9 (100.0)	1.634	0.201
pN1	6 (66.7)	4 (75.0)	0.348	0.555
pN2	2 (0.0)	3 (66.7)	0.825	0.364
pN3	8 (12.5)	5 (40.0)	3.940	0.047
pT4a
pN0	23 (68.7)	25 (83.1)	5.108	0.024
pN1	24 (54.2)	21 (75.4)	4.743	0.029
pN2	46 (27.2)	23 (61.9)	7.682	0.006
pN3	83 (6.9)	28 (48.6)	23.138	0.000

LST: Large-sized tumor; SST: Small-sized tumor; OS: Overall 5-year survival rate.