Table 3. COX regression analysis of prognostic factors for stage pN0 ESCC patients with positive LN metastasis on preoperative CT scan.

Variables	Univariate COX regression			Multivariate COX regression
	HR (95% CI)	P value		HR (95% CI)	P value
Gender
Male	Reference
Female	0.038 (0.001–2.209)	0.114
Age, years
<60	Reference
≥60	0.862 (0.411–1.809)	0.695
Position		0.624
Upper	Reference
Middle	1.407 (0.427–4.636)	0.574
Lower	0.844 (0.170–4.185)	0.835
Surgery
Ivor-Lewis	Reference
Sweet	0.720 (0.355–1.461)	0.363
Mckeown	0.926 (0.305–3.694)	0.926
T stage
T1+T2	Reference			Reference
T3+T4	2.183 (1.101–4.329)	0.024		2.274 (1.145–4.518)	0.019
Length
<3	Reference
<5	2.328 (0.996–5.444)	0.051
≥5	1.261 (0.466–3.409)	0.648
Differentiation
High	Reference
Moderately	1.353 (0.456–4.011)	0.586
Poorly	1.943 (0.632–5.972)	0.246
Harvested LNs	0.965 (0.930–1.002)	0.067
<15	Reference			Reference
≥15	0.487 (0.244–0.970)	0.041		0.467 (0.234–0.931)	0.030
Adjuvant therapy
No	Reference
Yes	0.902 (0.464–1.970)	0.902