(b) Multivariate analysis

Factor	P value	HR	95% CI
Lymph node metastasis number	0.517	0.919	0.847–1.807
Gender (male versus female)	0.040	8.466	1.106–64.800
Pathological stage	<0.0001
Stage I versus III	0.006	0.113	0.024–0.538
Stage II versus III	<0.0001	0.145	0.050–0.418
Clusterin concentration (<500 versus >500 μg/mL)	0.030	2.835	1.107–7.263

ESSC: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; HR: hazard ratio; CI: confidence interval.