Table 3. Univariate Cox regression analysis indicating associations between covariates of interest and PFS.

	Events/N	%	5-Years PFS (95% CI)	Log-rank P-value	HR	95% CI	P-value
Age (years)					0.98	0.96;1.01	0.2682
Gender
Male	38/120	31.7	68.4 (59.0;76.2)	0.9901	1
Female	18/54	33.3	67.2 (52.6;78.2)		1.00	0.57;1.76	0.9913
Distance from anal verge (cm)					0.98	0.89;1.09	0.7270
Total radiotherapy dose (Gy)
<50.40	7/24	29.2	67.9 (43.6;83.5)	0.1816	1
50.40	27/91	29.7	71.7 (61.0;79.9)		0.78	0.35;1.80	0.5594
>50.40	20/49	40.8	58.5 (42.7;71.3)		1.35	0.57;3.19	0.4962
Fluoropyrimidine
Alone	33/94	35.1	63.2 (52.0;72.5)	0.1460	1.63	0.91;2.94	0.1002
+other drugs	18/68	26.5	76.1 (64.0;84.6)		1
No	3/6	50.0	33.3 (1.4;75.5)		2.55	0.74;8.75	0.1375
pTNM
0–II	27/126	21.4	78.7 (70.1;85.2)	<0.0001	1
III–IV	26/39	66.7	35.9 (21.4;50.6)		4.35	2.51;7.54	<0.0001
TRG
Response	15/73	20.5	78.2 (66.3;86.3)	0.0047	1
No response	41/101	40.6	60.0 (49.2;69.1)		2.30	1.27;4.17	0.0060
TERT T2
=0	13/69	18.8	79.9 (67.8;87.8)	0.0008	1
>0	36/83	43.4	58.8 (47.1;68.7)		2.83	1.50;5.34	0.0013
TERT T2
⩽median	16/77	20.8	77.6 (65.9;85.7)	0.0030	1
>median	33/75	44.0	59.2 (47.0;69.4)		2.40	1.32;4.37	0.0040
CEA T2
⩽median	24/79	30.4	67.3 (55.0;76.8)	0.3684	1
>median	16/69	23.2	76.9 (64.5;85.4)		0.75	0.40;1.41	0.3700
TERT T3
=0=median	4/52	7.7	90.6 (76.6;96.4)	<0.0001	1
>0	22/50	44.0	53.1 (37.6;66.3)		7.46	2.56;21.6	0.0002
CEA T3
⩽median	7/61	11.5	86.9 (74.4;93.6)	0.0016	1
>median	20/55	36.4	60.8 (45.7;72.9)		3.65	1.54;8.64	0.0032

Abbreviations: CEA=carcinoembryonic antigen; CI=confidence interval; HR=hazard ratio; PFS=progression-free survival; pTNM=pathological Tumour, Node, Metastasis classification; TERT=telomerase reverse transcriptase; TRG=tumour regression grade.

Notes: Median levels of TERT at were 42 copies per ml and 0 copies per ml at T2 and T3 time point, respectively. Median levels of CEA were 1.6 and 1.5 ng ml⁻¹ at T2 and T3 time point, respectively.