Table 1.

Patient characteristics.

Factors	N = 173
Gender (male/female)	94/79
Age∗ (year)	65 (16–88)
CEA∗ (ng/mL)	3.6 (0.5–672.5)
Histological grade (Tub1/Tub2/other∗∗)	34/130/9
Tumor invasion (T2/T3/T4)	17/85/71
Lymph node metastasis (N0/N1/N2)	77/57/39
Lymphatic invasion (absent/present)	73/100
Vascular invasion (absent/present)	41/132
Stage (I/II/III/IV)	10/66/82/15

^∗Continuous variable. ^∗∗Other: poorly differentiated, mucinous adenocarcinoma, or squamous cell carcinoma. Tub1: well-differentiated adenocarcinoma; Tub2: moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma.