Figure 2.

Correlations between pN categories with OS, and redefinitions of 3 subgroups in stage III. A: The correlation between pN and OS in AJCC 8^th TNM staging system. AJCC 8^th staging system performed well in discriminating patients with different pN status (P<0.001). Survival decreased in a stepwise fashion with increasing pN. The median OS of patients with pN3b was worse than that of patients with pN3a, the differences was statistically significant (P<0.001). B: The T4aN3M0 (IIIC) subgroup of AJCC 7^th staging system was restaged into T4aN3aM0 (IIIB) and T4aN3bM0 (IIIC) of AJCC 8^th staging system. C: Integration of AJCC 7^th IIIB and AJCC 8^th IIIA. T4aN2M0 and T4bN0M0 subgroups were downstaged from AJCC 7^th IIIB into AJCC 8^th IIIA. D: Stage IIIC of 7^th TNM system. Subgroup T4bN2M0 was downstaged from stage IIIC of AJCC 7^th system into stage IIIB of AJCC 8^th system. E: Stage IIIA of AJCC 8^th TNM system without T4bN0M0. No heterogeneity existed within this category. F: Stage IIIB of AJCC 8^th TNM system plus T4bN0M0. No heterogeneity existed within this category. Detailed data of subgroup analysis was shown at the lower right corner of each part. Blue-framed categories were downstaged GC cases.