Table 3.

Relationship between serum CEA or HMGB1 level and pathological characteristics in gastric cancer groups including EGC, AGC, and metastatic GC

Variables (γs)	CEA	P-value¶	HMGB1	P-value¶
Depth of invasion (T stage)	0.118	p > 0.05	0.273	p = 0.011
Lymph node metastases (N stage)	0.131	p > 0.05	0.225	p = 0.039
Pathological differentiation*	-0.040	p > 0.05	0.009	p > 0.05
Lymphovascular or perineural invasion	0.105	p > 0.05	0.067,	p > 0.05
Tumor location†	0.037	p > 0.05	0.041	p > 0.05
Size of tumor‡	0.147	p > 0.05	0.457	P = 0.017
Stage§	0.098	p > 0.05	0.221	p = 0.040

*Gastric cancers are divided into intestinal and diffuse type carcinoma according to Lauren classification of differentiation.

^†Gastric cancers are divided into three groups according to tumor location; antrum/body, cardia, diffuse.

^‡Gastric cancers are divided into three groups by size; < 3 cm, 3–5 cm and > 5 cm.

^§The stage of tumor was defined according to the UICC-TNM classification. Subjects with stage IV were excluded from this analysis.

^¶ The relationship between each pathological variable and serum CEA or HMGB1 level in gastric cancer groups including EGC, AGC, and metastatic GC was evaluated by Spearman correlation (for non-continuous variables). γ_s, Spearman correlation coefficients.