Table 2. Contribution of stromal POSTN expression, epithelial POSTN expression, and demographic and clinicopathological covariates to postoperative survivals of CRC patients in multivariate Cox hazard proportion models.

	Shanghai Cohort				Guangzhou Cohort
	DFS		DSS		DSS
	HR (95% CI)	P value	HR (95% CI)	P value	HR (95% CI)	P value
Stromal POSTN score
Low	1.00		1.00		1.00
Medium	5.14 (3.21–8.23)	<0.001	4.14 (2.12–8.11)	<0.001	2.71 (1.43–5.14)	0.002
High	11.85 (6.61–21.23)	<0.001	9.18 (4.15–20.34)	<0.001	5.69 (2.93–11.05)	<0.001
Epithelial POSTN score
Low	1.00		1.00		1.00
Medium	0.63 (0.38–1.04)	0.069	1.06 (0.55–2.04)	0.868	1.22 (0.64–2.32)	0.541
High	0.83 (0.46–1.50)	0.534	1.16 (0.51–2.62)	0.720	3.76 (1.50–9.41)	0.005
TNM stage (III vs I + II)	1.86 (1.20–2.88)	0.006	1.53 (0.84–2.80)	0.167	1.39 (0.84–2.32)	0.204
Differentiation grade (poorly vs well + moderately)	1.11 (0.75–1.65)	0.614	1.03 (0.559–1.79)	0.929	1.56 (0.68–3.57)	0.294
Adjuvant chemotherapy (yes vs no)	1.79 (0.74–4.36)	0.200	1.45 (0.48–4.39)	0.516	1.00 (0.59–1.72)	0.987
Age (≥50 vs <50 years)	0.82 (0.54–1.25)	0.36	1.39 (0.72–2.70)	0.332	1.41 (0.79–2.50)	0.247
Sex (male vs female)	1.19 (0.81–1.73)	0.378	1.27 (0.74–2.18)	0.382	1.04 (0.63–1.71)	0.877
Disease location (rectum vs colon)	1.18 (0.81–1.71)	0.395	1.35 (0.80–2.27)	0.257	1.58 (0.91–2.74)	0.104
Lymph nodes examined (≥12 vs <12)	2.22 (1.47–3.33)	<0.001	1.96 (1.12–3.45)	0.019	0.94 (0.58–1.55)	0.819
Serum CEA (ng/ml) (≥5 vs <5)	0.99 (0.65–1.52)	0.991	1.02 (0.57–1.83)	0.937	1.51 (0.90–2.52)	0.119
Serum CA19–9 (U/ml) (≥37 vs <37)	1.52 (0.93–2.51)	0.098	1.42 (0.71–2.82)	0.324	2.02 (1.14–3.58)	0.015

Abbreviations: CRC, colorectal carcinoma; DFS, disease-free survival; DSS, disease-specific survival; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; CEA, carcinoembryonic antigen; IHC, immunohistochemistry.