Table 2. Multivariate analysis using the stepwise Cox regression procedures.

	Univariatea	Multivariateb
Variables	P-value	HR	95% CI	P-value
Sex
Male vs female	0.9583	2.749	1.134–6.665	0.0252
Age
⩾60 vs <60	0.0391	5.649	1.992–16.12	0.0011
Location
U vs ML	0.0262		—
Histological type
Undifferentiated vs differentiated	0.8468		—
Tumor size (mm)
⩾40 vs <40	<0.0001		—
Venous invasion
Positive vs negative	<0.0001	5.681	2.173–14.92	0.0004
Lymphatic invasion
Positive vs negative	<0.0001		—
pT-stage
T3-4 vs T1-2	<0.0001	6.493	1.385–27.77	0.0177
pN-stage
N2-3 vs N0-1	<0.0001	17.54	4.672–66.66	<0.0001
SMYD2 expression
High vs low	0.0073	4.258	1.690–10.72	0.0021

Abbreviations: CI=confidence interval; HR=hazard ratio; ML=middle and lower; SMYD2=SET and MYND domain-containing protein 2; U=upper. Statistically significant values are in bold.

^aKaplan–Meier method, and the statistical significance was determined by log-rank test.

^bMultivariate survival analysis was performed using Cox's proportional hazard model.