Table 3. Univariate and multivariate analyses of SULT2B1b expression and patients' survival in the Luoyang cohort (n=202).

		Univariate analysis			Multivariate analysisa
Variables	Categories	HR	95% CI	P-value	HR	95% CI	P-value
Disease-specific survival
Age (years)	≥60/<60	2.049	1.208–3.477	0.008	1.974	1.142–3.414	0.015
Sex	Male/female	0.756	0.498–1.149	0.190	0.926	0.595–1.440	0.732
Tumor location	Colon/rectum	1.003	0.760–1.322	0.985	0.915	0.683–1.227	0.554
Tumor size (cm)	≥5/<5	1.076	0.703–1.647	0.736	1.127	0.731–1.740	0.588
Differentiation grade	Poor/well+moderate	1.419	0.907–2.220	0.126	1.245	0.789–1.964	0.347
TNM stage	III/I+II	2.895	1.895–4.422	<0.001	2.705	1.729–4.231	<0.001
SULT2B1b expressionb	High/low	3.162	1.936–5.164	<0.001	2.694	1.631–4.451	<0.001
Disease-free survival
Age ( years)	≥60/<60	1.373	0.899–2.095	0.142	1.408	0.904–2.194	0.131
Sex	Male/female	0.783	0.539–1.138	0.200	1.025	0.691–1.519	0.904
Tumor location	Colon/rectum	0.875	0.680–1.124	0.295	0.883	0.675–1.157	0.368
Tumor size (cm)	≥5/<5	0.948	0.651–1.380	0.779	0.984	0.670–1.444	0.932
Differentiation grade	Poor/well+moderate	1.380	0.922–2.065	0.118	1.172	0.778–1.765	0.448
TNM stage	III/I+II	4.555	3.071–6.757	<0.001	4.202	2.786–6.338	<0.001
SULT2B1b expressionb	High/low	2.278	1.525–3.403	<0.001	1.938	1.277–2.941	0.002

HR, hazard ratio; SULT2B1b, sulfotransferase 2B1b; 95% CI, 95% confidence interval.

Bold type indicates statistical significance.

^aMultivariate models were adjusted for age, sex, tumor location, tumor size, differentiation grade, and TNM stage.

^bFor SULT2B1b, median values were used as the cut-off point for definition of subgroups (low expression and high expression groups).