Table 2. Clinicopathological variables and BDNF/TrkB expression in 150 gastric cancer patients.

		TrkB expression			BDNF/TrkB axis
Variable	n	High (n=64)	Low (n=86)	P	Co-expression (n=35)	Others (n=115)	P
Gender
Male	119	54	65	188b	29	90	0.557b
Female	31	10	21		6	25
Age (y)
<69 (median)	71	30	41	0.923b	12	59	0.078b
⩾69	79	34	45		23	56
Tumour size
⩾5.5 cm (median)	76	34	42	0.603b	20	56	0.382b
<5.5 cm	74	30	44		15	59
Histological type
Intestinal type	75	39	36	0.021a,b	24	51	0.012a,b
Diffuse type	75	25	50		11	64
Pathological T category
pT1/2	52	18	34	0.146b	9	43	0.204b
pT3/4	98	46	52		26	72
Venous invasion
+	119	51	68	0.926b	30	89	0.287b
−	31	13	18		5	26
Lymphatic invasion
+	138	61	77	0.197b	33	105	0.569b
−	12	3	9		2	10
Lymph node metastasis
N0	45	14	31	0.061b	5	40	0.021a,b
N1	105	50	55		30	75
Liver metastasis
H0	138	58	80	0.592b	33	105	0.569b
H1	12	6	6		2	10
Peritoneal carcinomatosis
P0	123	50	73	0.287b	27	96	0.393b
P1	27	14	13		8	19
Stage classification
Stage I–II	48	17	31	0.218b	8	40	0.185b
Stage III–IV	102	47	55		27	75

^aP<0.05.

^bPearson’s χ²-test.