Table 3.

Stepwise Cox regression analysis of the survival of gastric cancer patients.

Variables	Adjusted HR (95% CI)	P
Age (≥70 vs <70)	1.56 (1.11-2.20)	0.01
T stage	1.39 (1.03-1.88)	0.03
N stage	1.63 (1.35-1.97)	<0.01
Chemotherapy	0.56 (0.40-0.78)	0.01
TIMP-1&MMP-7 (both + vs not both +)	1.74(1.08-2.80)	0.02

Age group, sex, tumour size, T stage, N stage, differentiation, histological type, chemotherapy, lymph vascular invasion, neural invasion, and expression of MMP-7 and TIMP-1 were used as variables in the regression model. Both +: patients whose tumour tissue expressed both MMP-7 and TIMP-1.