Table I.
Patient characteristics.
| No. of patients | 105 |
| Gender (M/F) | 59/46 |
| Age (years; mean ± SD) | 65.3±12.1 |
| Tumor size (cm; mean ± SD) | 5.3±2.1 |
| Histological type | |
| Differentiated | 99 |
| Undifferentiated | 6 |
| Depth of invasion | |
| T1/T2/T3/T4a/T4b | 1/19/40/17/28 |
| Lymph node metastasis (−/+) | 50/55 |
| Distant metastasis (−/+) | 82/23 |
| TNM stage | |
| I/II/III/IV | 17/31/34/23 |
| Lymphatic invasion (weak/strong) | 64/41 |
| Venous invasion (−/+) | 62/43 |
The weak group of lymphatic invasion indicated score 0 and 1, and the strong group indicated score 2 and 3 by the Japan Classification of Colorectal Cancer.