Table 4. Cox proportional hazard model for overall survival among the 272 advanced gastric cancer patients.

Parameters		Univariate analysis			Multivariate analysis
		HR	95% CI	P-value	HR	95% CI	P-value
Gender (ref: male)
	Female	1.094	0.751–1.595	0.638
Age (yr) (ref: <65)
	≥65	0.811	0.572–1.151	0.241
Pretreatment BMI (kg/m2) (ref: ≥18.5)
	<18.5	2.015	1.283–3.164	0.002	1.456	0.858–2.471	0.163
Tumor size (cm) (ref: <4)
	≥4	2.099	1.479–2.979	<0.001	1.402	0.954–2.061	0.085
Degree of differentiation (ref: well)
	Poorly	2.174	1.226–3.854	0.008	1.970	1.013–3.835	0.046
yp* T stage (ref: Tis and T0-2)
	T3-4	4.022	2.470–6.548	<0.001	2.316	1.271–4.221	0.006
yp* N stage (ref: N0)
	N1-3	5.216	3.136–8.676	<0.001	3.131	1.823–5.379	<0.001
yp* TNM stage (ref: T0N0M0, 0 and I)
	II-III	22.321	5.522–90.226	<0.001	NA	NA	NA
Post-operation chemotherapy (ref: present)
	Absent	1.801	1.048–3.096	0.033	1.824	0.974–3.415	0.060
Postoperative complications (ref: no)
	Yes	1.455	0.942–2.247	0.091	1.772	1.082–2.903	0.023
Severe complications (Clavien-Dindo ≥III) (ref: no)
	Yes	1.506	0.703–3.225	0.292
Pretreatment CONUT score (ref: ≤3)
	≥4	1.479	1.043–2.097	0.028	1.618	1.111–2.356	0.012
Pretreatment CEA (ng/mL) (ref: ≤5)
	>5	1.202	0.822–1.758	0.342

Considering that the yp T/yp N stages were significantly associated with the yp TNM stage, we did not include the TNM stage in the final multivariate analysis.

The Cox proportional multivariate hazards model was performed with the backward likelihood method.

HR = hazard ratio; CI = confidence interval; ref = reference; BMI = body mass index; Tis = tumor in situ; TNM = tumor-node-metastasis; CONUT = controlling nutritional status; CEA = carcinoembryonic antigen; NA = not applicable.

^*The yp prefix was used to indicate the cases in which staging was performed following preoperative therapy.