Table 2.

Baseline characteristics, type of surgery, and postoperative stage of patients in HRQoL analyses, sorted by three-arm randomization and pooled short-course radiotherapy comparison

	Patients included in HRQoL analyses (n = 379)
	Three-arm randomization			Short-course radiotherapy comparison
	SRT (n = 51)	SRT-delay (n = 57)	LRT-delay (n = 61)	SRT (n = 154)	SRT-delay (n = 164)
Age (years)	64 (35–79)	63 (41–83)	65 (40–79)	65 (35–81)	64 (39–80)
Sex
Men	33 (64.7%)	40 (70.2%)	38 (62.3%)	94 (61.0%)	97 (59.1%)
Women	18 (35.3%)	17 (29.8%)	23 (37.7%)	60 (39.0%)	67 (40.9%)
Height from anal verge (cm)
0–5	20 (39.2%)	25 (43.9%)	18 (29.5%)	53 (34.4%)	55 (33.5%)
6–10	20 (39.2%)	20 (35.1%)	28 (45.9%)	60 (39.0%)	60 (36.9%)
11–15	11 (21.6%)	12 (21.1%)	15 (24.6%)	41 (26.6%)	49 (29.9%)
Type of surgery
AR	33 (64.7%)	34 (59.6%)	41 (67.2%)	98 (63.6%)	105 (64.0%)
APE	17 (33.3%)	22 (38.6%)	15 (24.6%)	50 (32.5%)	56 (34.1%)
Hartmann's	1 (2.0%)	1 (1.8%)	3 (4.9%)	6 (3.9%)	3 (1.8%)
LE	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
NR	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	2 (3.3%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
yPStage
I*	28 (54.9%)	30 (52.6%)	23 (37.7%)	65 (42.2%)	74 (45.1%)
II	14 (27.5%)	15 (26.3%)	20 (32.8%)	49 (31.8%)	38 (23.2%)
III	9 (17.6%)	10 (17.5%)	17 (27.9%)	39 (25.3%)	44 (26.8%)
IV	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	1 (0.6%)
X	0 (0%)	2 (3.5%)	1 (1.6%)	1 (0.6%)	7 (4.3%)

Data are median (range) or n (%).

*Includes patients with complete pathological response. HRQoL, health-related quality of life; SRT, short-course radiotherapy of 5 × 5 Gy, with surgery within 1 week; SRT-delay, short-course radiotherapy of 5 × 5 Gy, with a delay of 4–8 weeks to surgery; LRT-delay, long-course radiotherapy of 25 × 2 Gy, with surgery after 4–8 weeks; AR, anterior resection; APE, abdominal perineal excision; LE, local excision; NR, no resection.