Pathological characteristics of tumour in young and old patients who underwent surgical resection with complete data (n=433)
| Characteristics | Young patients (<50 years) (n=144) | Old patients (≥50 years) (n=289) | All patients (n=403) | P-value | |||
| n | % | n | % | n | % | ||
| Tumour size | 0.559 | ||||||
| <5 cm | 59 | 41.0 | 110 | 38.1 | 169 | 39.0 | |
| ≥5 cm | 85 | 59.0 | 179 | 61.9 | 264 | 61.0 | |
| Growth pattern | 0.412 | ||||||
| Exophytic | 120 | 83.3 | 240 | 83.0 | 360 | 83.1 | |
| Endophytic | 15 | 10.4 | 21 | 7.3 | 36 | 8.3 | |
| Ulcerative | 8 | 5.6 | 22 | 7.6 | 30 | 6.9 | |
| Linitis plastica | 1 | 0.7 | 6 | 2.1 | 7 | 1.7 | |
| Histological subtypes | 0.043 | ||||||
| Adenocarcinoma NOS | 115 | 79.9 | 254 | 87.9 | 369 | 85.2 | |
| Mucinous | 28 | 19.4 | 35 | 12.1 | 63 | 14.5 | |
| Signet-ring cell | 1 | 0.7 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.3 | |
| Tumour grade | 0.591 | ||||||
| Well differentiated | 97 | 67.4 | 196 | 67.8 | 293 | 67.7 | |
| Moderately differentiated | 31 | 21.5 | 69 | 23.9 | 100 | 23.1 | |
| Poorly differentiated | 16 | 11.1 | 24 | 8.3 | 40 | 9.2 | |
| Pathological tumour staging | 0.895 | ||||||
| pT1 | 3 | 2.1 | 8 | 2.8 | 11 | 2.5 | |
| pT2 | 22 | 15.3 | 44 | 15.2 | 66 | 15.2 | |
| pT3 | 94 | 65.3 | 194 | 67.1 | 288 | 66.6 | |
| pT4 | 25 | 17.3 | 43 | 14.9 | 68 | 15.7 | |
| Pathological node status | 0.734 | ||||||
| pN0 | 80 | 55.6 | 168 | 58.1 | 248 | 57.3 | |
| pN1a | 18 | 12.5 | 42 | 14.5 | 60 | 13.8 | |
| pN1b | 18 | 12.5 | 34 | 11.8 | 52 | 12.0 | |
| pN2a | 18 | 12.5 | 33 | 11.4 | 51 | 11.8 | |
| pN2b | 10 | 6.9 | 12 | 4.2 | 22 | 5.1 | |
| Adequacy of dissected LNs | |||||||
| Inadequate (<12) | 67 | 46.5 | 177 | 61.2 | 244 | 56.4 | 0.004 |
| Adequate (≥12) | 77 | 53.5 | 112 | 38.8 | 189 | 43.6 | |
| LNR | 0.967 | ||||||
| LNR1 (<0.05) | 81 | 56.2 | 168 | 58.1 | 249 | 57.5 | |
| LNR2 (0.05–0.20) | 21 | 14.6 | 38 | 13.1 | 59 | 13.6 | |
| LNR3 (0.20–0.40) | 15 | 10.4 | 28 | 9.7 | 43 | 10.0 | |
| LNR4 (≥0.40) | 27 | 18.8 | 55 | 19.1 | 82 | 18.9 | |
| Lymph node metastasis | 0.610 | ||||||
| Yes | 80 | 55.6 | 168 | 58.1 | 248 | 57.3 | |
| No | 64 | 44.4 | 121 | 41.9 | 185 | 42.7 | |
| Distant metastasis | 0.110 | ||||||
| M0 | 138 | 95.8 | 265 | 91.7 | 403 | 93.1 | |
| M1 | 6 | 4.2 | 24 | 8.3 | 30 | 6.9 | |
| Staging | 0.431 | ||||||
| I | 19 | 13.2 | 41 | 14.2 | 60 | 13.8 | |
| IIA | 48 | 33.3 | 100 | 34.6 | 148 | 34.2 | |
| IIB | 12 | 8.3 | 19 | 6.6 | 31 | 7.2 | |
| IIIA | 6 | 4.2 | 10 | 3.5 | 16 | 3.7 | |
| IIIB | 39 | 27.1 | 83 | 28.7 | 122 | 28.1 | |
| IIIC | 15 | 10.4 | 16 | 5.5 | 31 | 7.2 | |
| IV | 5 | 3.5 | 20 | 6.9 | 25 | 5.8 | |
| Degree of staging | 0.921 | ||||||
| Early stage (I–II) | 79 | 54.9 | 160 | 55.4 | 239 | 55.2 | |
| Advanced stage (III–IV) | 65 | 45.1 | 129 | 44.6 | 194 | 44.8 | |
| Lymphovascular invasion | 0.314 | ||||||
| Negative | 84 | 58.3 | 183 | 63.3 | 267 | 61.7 | |
| Positive | 60 | 41.7 | 106 | 36.7 | 166 | 38.3 | |
| Perineural invasion | <0.001 | ||||||
| Negative | 114 | 79.2 | 270 | 93.4 | 384 | 88.7 | |
| Positive | 30 | 20.8 | 19 | 6.6 | 49 | 11.3 | |
All statistical tests were done using the χ2 test. The value with bold printed indicates the significant p-value. Percent values (%) were calculated as a percentage of the column total.
LNR, Lymph node ratio ; LNs, Lymph nodes; NOS, not otherwise specified.