Table 3.

Relationships between PNI and clinicopathological features in gastric cancer patients with normal serum CEA levels before and after propensity score matching

		All patients				Propensity matched patients
Characteristics	Total patients	PNI			Total patients	PNI
		< 44.3	≥44.3			<  44.3	≥ 44.3
		(n = 79)	(n = 207)	p value		(n = 79)	(n = 87)	p value
Age (years)		75.2 ± 9.5	68.1 ± 11.5	< 0.0001		75.2 ± 9.5	68.2 ± 11.5	< 0.001
Sex				0.2912				0.347
Male	191	49	142		109	49	60
Female	95	30	65		57	30	27
BMI		21.45 ± 3.41	22.80 ± 3.39	0.0029		21.45 ± 3.41	22.54 ± 3.21	0.036
WBC (μl)		5367.0 ± 1482.3	5838.3 ± 1297.8	0.0088		5367.0 ± 1482.3	5916.4 ± 1259.0	0.011
RBC (× 104 μl)		368.4 ± 50.2	472.6 ± 397.5	0.021		368.4 ± 50.2	479.2 ± 483.3	0.044
Location of tumor				0.5422				0.634
EGJ	9	2	7		5	2	3
U	48	12	36		26	12	14
M	132	33	99		76	33	43
L	97	32	65		59	32	27
Tumor size (mm)		59.86 ± 31.41	41.06 ± 29.34	< 0.0001		59.86 ± 31.41	47.39 ± 32.81	0.014
Procedure				0.2763				0.872
LTG	59	19	40		43	19	24
LPG	26	4	22		8	4	4
L(A)DG	201	56	145		115	56	59
Differentiation				0.2569				0.812
Well	53	10	43		20	10	10
Moderate	106	33	73		66	33	33
Poor	127	36	91		80	36	44
Depth of tumor				0.0009				0.713
T1a-1b	154	31	123		64	31	33
2	37	8	29		22	8	14
3	41	16	25		33	16	17
4a-4b	52	24	28		47	24	23
Lymph node metastasis				0.0318				0.682
N0	199	46	153		98	46	52
N1	31	9	22		23	9	14
N2	30	12	18		24	12	12
N3	26	12	14		21	12	9
Pathological stage				0.001				0.884
1a-1b	178	36	142		76	36	40
2a-2b	48	17	31		38	17	21
3a-3c	60	26	34		52	26	26
Operation time (min)		400.8 ± 116.0	415.6 ± 118.5	0.3418		400.8 ± 116.0	425.9 ± 119.4	0.172
Intraoperative
blood loss (ml)		233.3 ± 388.3	163.0 ± 350.1	0.1421		233.3 ± 388.3	240.6 ± 486.0	0.915
Albumin (g/dl)		3.28 ± 0.48	4.21 ± 0.34	< 0.0001		3.28 ± 0.48	4.21 ± 0.36	< 0.001
CRP (mg/l)		0.682 ± 1.234	0.188 ± 0.555	< 0.0001		0.682 ± 1.234	0.191 ± 0.481	< 0.001
Adjuvant chemotherapy				0.4396				0.099
Yes	74	23	51		59	23	36
No	212	56	156		107	56	51