Table 3. Distribution of 173a patients according to tumour HIF-1α staining pattern.

	Pattern of HIF-1α staining
Factor	HIF-1α focal positivity	HIF-1α negative	HIF-1α at the invasive edge	P *
Differentiation
Well	4	12	2
Mod	20	33	14
Poor	25	38	25	0.37
Lauren type
Diffuse	24	41	23
Intestinal	25	42	18	0.74
T Stage
T in situ	1	2	0
T1	7	6	3
T2	18	29	6
T3	22	43	32
T4	1	3	0	0.087
N Stage
N0	22	23	5
N1	20	51	28
N2	6	7	7
N3	1	2	1	0.034
M stage
M0	48	81	40
M1	1	2	1	0.99
Overall TNM stage
0	1	2	0
I	16	11	3
II	13	33	7
III	17	31	30
IV	2	6	6	0.001

Abbreviations: HIF=hypoxia inducible factor; TNM=tumour node metastasis.

^aThree patients with diffusely positive HIF-1α staining and one patient with a missing slide were excluded.

^*χ² P-value.