Table 1.
Relations between p-STAT3 immunoreactivity and the pathological features of the tumours
| N | p-STAT3 immunoreactivity* (%) | ||
| + | − | ||
| Normal epithelium | 15 | 0 (0.0) | 15 (100) |
| Adenoma† | 44 | 8 (18.2) | 36 (81.8) |
| Total adenocarcinomas | 95 | 69 (72.6) | 26 (27.4) |
| Differentiation | |||
| Well | 45 | 29 (64.4) | 16 (35.6) |
| Moderate | 41 | 34 (82.9) | 7 (17.1) |
| Poor | 3 | 1 (33.3) | 2 (66.7) |
| Mucinous carcinoma | 6 | 5 (83.3) | 1 (16.7) |
| Grade of tumour invasion‡ | |||
| Tis | 18 | 9 (50.0) | 9 (50.0) |
| T1 | 8 | 4 (50.0) | 4 (50.0) |
| T2 | 5 | 2 (40.0) | 3 (60.0) |
| T3 | 61 | 51 (83.6) | 10 (16.4) |
| T4 | 3 | 3 (100.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Lymphatic invasion | |||
| Absent | 30 | 18 (60.0) | 12 (40.0) |
| Present | 65 | 51 (78.5) | 14 (21.5) |
| Venous invasion§ | |||
| Absent | 58 | 37 (63.8) | 21 (36.2) |
| Present | 37 | 32 (86.5) | 5 (13.5) |
| Lymph node metastasis§ | |||
| Absent | 62 | 40 (64.5) | 22 (35.5) |
| Present | 33 | 28 (84.4) | 5 (15.2) |
| Dukes’classification¶ | |||
| A | 31 | 15 (48.4) | 16 (51.6) |
| B | 30 | 25 (83.3) | 5 (16.6) |
| C | 31 | 26 (83.9) | 5 (16.1) |
| D | 3 | 3 (100.0) | 0 (0.0) |
*See Materials and Methods for classification of staining intensity; †Significant difference between total adenocarcinomas and adenomas (p<0.001), χ2 for independence test; ‡p<0.01, Mann-Whitney’s U test; §p<0.05, χ2 for independence test; ¶p<0.001, Mann-Whitney’s U test.
p-STAT, phosphorylated (activated) signal transducer and activator of transcription.