Table 4. The correlation of clinicopathologic variables of ESCC with serum miRNA-146a in validation group.

Clinicopathological features	Low expression level (n=41)	High expression level (n=43)	Pa-value
Age (years)			0.584
<65	21	22
≥65	20	21
Gender			0.338
Male	21	25
Female	20	18
Smoking			0.308
Never or light	27	25
Heavy	14	18
Drinking			0.492
Never or light	23	23
Heavy	18	20
Differentiation			0.785
Well	13	11
Moderate	8	8
Poor	20	24
T stage			0.002
T1	7	24
T2	18	8
T3	10	8
T4	6	3
N stage			0.303
N0	26	28
N1	4	9
N2	6	4
N3	5	2
TNM stage			0.231
I	7	14
II	19	18
III	15	11

Abbreviations: ESCC=oesophageal squamous cell cancer; miRNA-146a=microRNA-146a; P^a=χ² test; TNM=tumour node metastasis.