Table 3. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses in CRCs (validation cohort; n = 725)^a .

Variables	n	Univariate analysis	P-value	Multivariate analysisb	P-value
		H.R. (95% C.I.)		H.R. (95% C.I.)
EPCAM expression status
EPCAM-intact	675	Reference		Reference
EPCAM-PL	50	2.8 (1.95–4.01)	<0.001	1.57 (1.04–2.39)	0.03
AJCC/UICC cancer stage
Stage I/II	346	Reference		Reference
Stage III/IV	379	4.54 (3.38–6.09)	<0.001	3.18 (2.3–4.39)	<0.001
Tumor differentiation
WD/MD	697	Reference		Reference
PD	28	3.4 (2.15–5.37)	<0.001	1.62 (0.95–2.76)	0.08
Lymphovascular invasion
Absent	404	Reference		Reference
Present	321	2.62 (2.04–3.36)	<0.001	1.27 (0.96–1.68)	0.09
Perineural invasion
Absent	552	Reference		Reference
Present	173	3.19 (2.49–4.08)	<0.001	1.9 (1.45–2.48)	<0.001
Tumor budding
Absent	221	Reference		Reference
Present	504	2.13 (1.56–2.89)	<0.001	1.29 (0.93–1.78)	0.13
CIMP status
CIMP-low/negative	679	Reference		Reference
CIMP-high	46	1.81 (1.19–2.76)	0.006	1.08 (0.68–1.72)	0.73

H.R., Cox hazard ratio; 95% C.I., 95% confidence interval of H.R.; EPCAM-intact, intact EPCAM expression; EPCAM-PL, partial loss of EPCAM expression; AJCC/UICC, American Joint Committee on Cancer/International Union against Cancer; WD, well differentiated; MD, moderately differentiated; PD, poorly differentiated; CIMP, CpG island methylator phenotype

^aEPCAM-CL (n = 1) was excluded from these Cox proportional hazards regression model-based survival analyses due to the extremely small sample size for this variable.

^bVariables statistically significant in the univariate analysis were entered into the multivariate analysis.