Table 2. Impact of positive lymph node count and lymph node ratio on survival in distant metastatic gastric cancer patients by multivariate analysis.

Item	All patients		N1–N3		N1		N2		N3
	HR	95% CI	HR	95% CI	HR	95% CI	HR	95% CI	HR	95% CI
Agea	1.006*	1.001–1.010	1.005*	1.000–1.010	NS		NS		NS
T stage (vs. T0–T2)	NS		NS		NS		NS		NA
Grade (vs. I–II)	1.205*	1.017–1.429	NS		NS		NA		NA
Tumor site (vs. Body)
Fundus	NS		NS		NA		2.733**	1.313–5.688	NA
Tumor extent (vs. Localized)
Regional	NS		NS		NS		1.329*	1.003–1.761	NS
Further extent	1.605**	1.215–2.120	1.568**	1.173–2.096	NS		1.695*	1.062–2.705	2.022*	1.156–3.534
Mets at diag (vs. DNs)
OPI	1.266**	1.061–1.511	NS		NS		NS		NA
OPI and DNs	1.326*	1.014–1.735	NS		NS		NS		NA
Radi & Surg (vs. Surgery alone)	0.731**	0.611–0.874	0.663**	0.547–0.804	0.613**	0.460–0.817	0.658**	0.482–0.898	NA
PLNa	0.997	0.989–1.004	0.997	0.989–1.004	1.033	0.973–1.097	1.015	0.971–1.060	1.006	0.993–1.019
LNRa	2.384**	1.920–2.960	2.408**	1.885–3.077	2.123**	1.533–2.941	2.241**	1.386–3.624	5.640**	2.320–14.264

Survival was analyzed in all patients with nodal dissections, patients with positive nodes and patients of same N stages.

^aContinuous variable

^*P < 0.05

^**P < 0.01.

Abbreviations: HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; Mets, metastasis status; diag, diagnosis; OPI, organs or peritoneal involved; DNs, distant nodes; PLN, positive lymph node; LNR, lymph node ratio; NA, not applicable; NS, not significance; Radi, radiation; Surg, surgery.