Table 3.

SCRT, short-course radiotherapy; LCRT, long-course chemoradiotherapy; CHT, chemotherapy; AR, anterior resection; APR, abdominoperineal resection

		All patients		MRI-negative LLN		MRI-positive LLN		p-value
		n	%	n	%	n	%
Patients		344	100.0%	314	91.3%	30	8.7%
Sex	Male	206	59.9%	185	58.9%	21	70.0%	0.237
	Female	138	40.1%	129	41.1%	9	30.0%
Age	Mean	66.4		66.4		66.2		0.238
ASA	1	95	27.6%	86	27.4%	9	30.0%	0.414
	2	185	53.8%	171	54.5%	14	46.7%
	3	57	16.6%	51	16.2%	6	20.0%
	4	3	0.9%	2	0.6%	1	3.3%
	Missing	4	1.2%	4	1.3%	0	0.0%
Neoadjuvant therapy	None	26	7.6%	25	8.0%	1	3.3%	0.128
	SCRT	170	49.4%	160	51.0%	10	33.3%
	LCRT	139	40.4%	121	38.5%	18	60.0%
	Other	9	2.6%	8	2.5%	1	3.3%
Surgical procedure	APR	188	54.7%	167	53.2%	21	70.0%	0.209
	Hartmann	33	9.6%	31	9.9%	2	6.7%
	AR	123	35.8%	116	36.9%	7	23.3%
Tumour height (cm)	Low 0–5	139	40.4%	125	39.8%	14	46.7%	0.465
	Medium 6–10	205	59.6%	189	60.2%	16	53.3%
cT-stage	T3	227	66.0%	209	66.6%	18	60.0%	0.250
	T4	88	25.6%	77	24.5%	11	36.7%
	TX	29	8.4%	28	8.9%	1	3.3%
cN-stage	N1–2	235	68.3%	210	66.9%	25	83.3%	0.064
	NX	109	31.7%	105	33.4%	5	16.7%
cM-stage	M0	292	84.9%	274	87.3%	18	60.0%	< 0.001
(Synchronous)	M1	52	15.1%	40	12.7%	12	40.0%
pT-stage	T0–2	108	31.4%	98	31.2%	10	33.3%	0.744
	T3–4	233	67.7%	213	67.8%	20	66.7%
	TX	3	0.9%	3	1.0%	0	0.0%
pN-stage	N0	193	56.1%	173	55.1%	20	66.7%	0.407
	N1–2	149	43.3%	139	44.3%	10	33.3%
	NX	2	0.6%	2	0.6%	0	0.0%
Perineural growth	Yes	70	20.3%	67	21.3%	3	10.0%	0.135
	No	271	78.8%	244	77.7%	27	90.0%
	Missing	3	0.9%	3	1.0%	0	0.0%
Vascular growth	Yes	59	17.2%	55	17.5%	4	13.3%	0.547
	No	282	82.0%	256	81.5%	26	86.7%
	Missing	3	0.9%	3	1.0%	0	0.0%
Adjuvant therapy	None	235	68.3%	213	67.8%	22	73.3%	0.536
	CHT	109	31.7%	101	32.2%	8	26.7%
Local recurrence	Yes	16	4.7%	13	4.1%	3	10.0%	0.154
	No	328	95.3%	301	95.9%	27	90.0%
Distant metastasis	Yes	111	32.3%	99	31.5%	12	40.0%	0.343
(Metachronous)	No	233	67.7%	215	68.5%	18	60.0%
Follow-up time	Mean (m)	75	IQR55–99	76	IQR60–100	65	IQR34–97	< 0.001