. 2020 Mar 6;146(5):1343–1350. doi: 10.1007/s00432-020-03170-5

Table 2.

Multivariate analyses of factors affecting overall survival, cause-specific survival, disease-free survival, and distant metastasis-free survival

Variable	OS		CSS
Variable	HR (95% CI)	P^a	HR (95% CI)	P^a
Lymphovascular invasion	2.46 (1.11–5.44)	0.027*	3.26 (1.28–8.28)	0.013*
LN metastasis	4.24 (1.84–9.77)	0.001*	3.47 (1.36–8.82)	0.009*
Distant metastasis^b	3.41 (1.63–7.14)	0.001*	13.64 (4.00–46.46)	< 0.001*

	DFS		DMFS
	HR (95% CI)	P^a	HR (95% CI)	P^a
T3–T4 classification	2.09 (1.29–3.41)	0.003*	2.77 (1.53–5.02)	0.001*
Extranodal extension	2.51 (1.15–5.47)	0.021*	3.58 (1.60–5.02)	< 0.001*

CI confidence interval, CSS cause-specific survival, DMFS distant metastasis-free survival, DFS disease-free survival, LN lymph node, OS overall survival, PORT postoperative radiotherapy, TNM pathological tumour-node-metastasis staging proposed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC, 8th edition)

^aMultivariate models were prepared using a backward stepwise selection procedure with all the variables with P < 0.1 on univariate analysis (Supplementary Table S1). *P < 0.05

^bAt the time of disease presentation and follow-up