Table 3. Multivariate survival analysis of 299 gastric cancer patients with positive node metastasis (according to the Cox proportional hazards model (forward stepwise procedure)).

Block	Variables in the equation	HR	P value
1	Age at surgery	1.576	0.001
1	Type of gastrectomy	0.506	<0.001
2	Age at surgery	1.538	0.002
2	Type of gastrectomy	0.572	<0.001
2	Extent of lymph node metastasis	1.867	<0.001
3	Age at surgery	1.115	0.443
3	Type of gastrectomy	0.763	0.081
3	Extent of lymph node metastasis	0.983	0.912
3	PLNs	3.006	<0.001
4	Age at surgery	1.147	0.333
4	Type of gastrectomy	0.779	0.109
4	Extent of lymph node metastasis	1.025	0.877
4	PLNs	2.525	<0.001
4	NLNs	0.642	0.010
5 and 6	Age at surgery	1.188	0.226
5 and 6	Type of gastrectomy	0.785	0.121
5 and 6	Extent of lymph node metastasis	1.050	0.759
5 and 6	PLNs	1.735	0.004
5 and 6	NLNs	0.743	0.101
5 and 6	RNPL	0.635	0.006
7 and 8	Age at surgery	1.135	0.376
7 and 8	Type of gastrectomy	0.767	0.091
7 and 8	Extent of lymph node metastasis	0.988	0.941
7 and 8	PLNs	1.715	0.005
7 and 8	NLNs	0.689	0.042
7 and 8	RNPL	0.653	0.011
7 and 8	Depth of primary tumor invasion	1.552	0.006