Table 1.

Clinical characteristics of enrolled participants.

Cases	Healthy control (n = 60)	Stage I (n = 66)	Stage II (n = 60)	Stage III (n = 70)	Stage IV (n = 68)	p value
Male	34	36	30	39	32	0.40#
p value$	0.50$$	0.81	0.446	0.91	0.28	—
Age (years)	54.2 ± 3.5	56.0 ± 11.4	54.5 ± 10.3	56.1 ± 10.0	53.2 ± 15.4	0.49∗
p value∗∗	0.63$$	0.25	0.83	0.17	0.59	—
Body weight (kg)	66.8 ± 11.1	70.0 ± 13.1	67.5 ± 7.2	67.3 ± 7.4	67.1 ± 16.1	0.53∗
p value∗∗	0.48$$	0.15	0.67	0.77	0.74	—
Height (cm)	168.9 ± 8.2	169.5 ± 8.9	168.0 ± 5.4	167.6 ± 6.9	170.0 ± 9.3	0.40∗
p value∗∗	0.89$$	0.72	0.48	0.31	0.45	—
BMI	24.0 ± 3.0	24.3 ± 3.8	24.0 ± 2.7	23.4 ± 3.5	23.5 ± 2.9	0.37∗
p value∗∗	0.56$$	0.65	0.94	0.27	0.39	—
Total NK cells (% in lymphocytes)	19.2 ± 5.8	20.7 ± 11.1	21.0 ± 11.2	15.7 ± 8.5	14.7 ± 7.1	<0.001∗
p value∗∗	<0.01$$	0.38	0.28	<0.01	<0.001	—

^# χ ² test among all groups. ^∗ANOVA test among all groups. ^$χ² test between the healthy control group and the other corresponding groups. ^∗∗t-test between the healthy control group and the other corresponding groups. ^$$p value of healthy vs. CRC cases, χ² test or t-test.