Table 1. Baseline characteristics of patients.

Characteristic	Number of patients
Total	23
Gender
Male	18
Female	5
Age,years
Median	53
Range	23-73
WHO histologic type
II	18
III	5
Clinical T category
T1	1
T2	7
T3	13
T4	2
Clinical N category
N0	1
N1	5
N2	11
N3	6
UICC stage
II	3
III	12
IVa	2
IVb	6

Abbreviations: WHO, World Health Organization; UICC, Union for International Cancer Control; T, tumor; N, lymph node