Table 2.

Characteristics of patients in relation to presence of lymphovascular (LI), venous (VI) and perineural invasion (PNI)

	LI not present	LI present		VI not present	VI present		PNI not present	PNI present
			p value			p value			p value
Number of patients	114	129	–	136	107	–	127	116	–
Age (years)	68 (43–81)	66 (24–80)	0.31	68 (24–80)	67 (28–81)	0.26	68 (24–80)	65 (28–81)	0.005
Gender
Male	74	97	0.080	93	78	0.55	89	82	0.917
Female	40	32		44	30		38	34
Tumour location
Distal (STG)	46	51	0.897	62	35	0.042	59	38	0.029
Proximal (TG)	68	78		74	72		68	78
Pre-treatment cT stage
cT1	2	2	0.519	4	0	0.047	3	1	0.316
cT2	6	4		7	3		7	3
cT3	57	78		67	68		63	72
cT4	45	44		53	36		51	38
cTx/0	4	1		5	0		3	2
Pre-treatment cN stage
cN0	23	16	0.066	24	15	0.117	23	16	0.256
cN1	67	73		82	58		69	71
cN2	22	30		27	25		31	21
cN3	2	10		3	9		4	8
Radicality
R0	111	124	0.587	132	103	0.734	127	109	0.008
R1	3	5		4	4		0	8
Number of resected nodes	32 (14–103)	28 (10–129)	0.09	32 (14–142)	30 (10–71)	0.42	31 (10–103)	32 (15–142)	0.70
Number of positive nodes	0 (0–18)	3 (0–30)	< 0.0001	0 (0–30)	3 (0–23)	< 0.0001	0 (0–6)	3 (0–30)	< 0.0001
Post-treatment pT stage
ypT0	17	0	< 0.0001	17	0	< 0.0001	17	0	< 0.0001
ypT1	26	5		30	1		29	2
ypT2	33	45		46	32		46	32
ypT3	29	58		32	55		29	58
ypT4	9	21		11	19		6	24
Post-treatment pN stage
ypN0	76	31	< 0.0001	83	24	< 0.0001	80	27	< 0.0001
ypN1	21	31		27	25		24	28
ypN2	13	24		18	19		15	22
ypN3	4	43		8	39		8	39
Lymphovascular invasion present	–	–	–	43	86	< 0.0001	40	89	< 0.0001
Venous invasion present	21	87	< 0.0001	–	–	–	28	79	< 0.0001
Perineural invasion present	27	89	< 0.0001	37	79	< 0.0001	–	–	–

Values are median (range). Significant p values in bold