The prognostic value of nodal skip metastasis in resectable thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Figures & data

Table 1 Clinicopathological characteristics of 285 patients included in this study

Characteristics	Number of patients (%)
Gender
Male	217 (76.1)
Female	68 (23.9)
Age (years)
≤60	134 (47.0)
>60	151 (53.0)
Location of tumor
Upper	12 (4.2)
Middle	206 (72.3)
Lower	67 (23.5)
Tumor differentiation
Well-differentiated	51 (17.9)
Moderately differentiated	151 (53.0)
Poorly differentiated	83 (29.1)
T stage
T1	58 (20.4)
T2	64 (22.5)
T3	79 (27.7)
T4	13 (4.6)
N stage
N1	152 (53.3)
N2	95 (33.3)
N3	38 (13.3)
NSM status
No	92 (32.3)
Yes	193 (67.7)
Adjuvant therapy
None	119 (41.8)
Chemotherapy	103 (36.1)
Radiotherapy	20 (7.0)
Chemoradiotherapy	43 (15.1)
The number of resected lymph nodes
≤15	182 (63.9)
>15	103 (44.3)
Tumor length
≤4	168 (53.9)
>4	117 (36.1)

Abbreviation: NSM, nodal skip metastasis.

Table 2 Univariate and multivariate analyses of factors associated with nodal skip metastasis

Characteristics	NSM	Non-NSM	P-value (univariate)	P-value (multivariate)	HR (95% CI)
Gender			0.143
Male	75 (34.6)	142 (65.4)
Female	17 (25)	51 (75)
Age (years)			0.600
≤60	46 (34.3)	88 (65.7)
>60	46 (30.5)	105 (69.5)
Location of tumor			0.273
Upper	11 (91.7)	1 (8.3)
Middle	66 (32.0)	140 (68.0)
Lower	24 (35.8)	43 (64.2)
Tumor differentiation			0.489
Well-differentiated	15 (29.4)	36 (70.6)
Moderately differentiated	49 (32.5)	102 (67.5)
Poorly differentiated	28 (33.7)	55 (66.3)
T stage			0.212	0.014	1.533 (1.090–2.156)
T1	11 (19.0)	47 (81)
T2	22 (34.4)	42 (65.6)
T3	46 (35.1)	85 (64.9)
T4	13 (40.6)	19 (59.4)
N stage			0.020	0.001	0.470 (0.297–0.743)
N1	60 (39.5)	92 (60.5)
N2	22 (23.2)	73 (76.8)
N3	10 (26.3)	28 (73.7)
Tumor length			0.843
≤4	55 (32.7)	113 (67.3)
>4	37 (31.6)	80 (68.4)

Note: Values are expressed as n (%).

Abbreviations: NSM, nodal skip metastasis; HR, hazard rate; CI, confidence interval.

Figure 1 The PFS and OS for all patients.

Abbreviations: OS, overall survival; PFS, progression-free survival.

Figure 2 The overall survival for patients with or without NSM.

Abbreviation: NSM, nodal skip metastasis.

Table 3 Univariate and multivariate analyses for overall survival

Variable	P-value (univariate)	P-value (multivariate)	HR (95% CI)
Gender	0.245
Male
Female
Age (years)	0.378
≤60
>60
Location of tumor	0.321
Upper
Middle
Lower
Tumor differentiation	0.414
Well-differentiated
Moderately differentiated
Poorly differentiated
T stage	0.000	0.000	2.403 (2.019–2.859)
T1
T2
T3
T4
N stage	0.000	0.000	2.997 (2.417–3.717)
N1
N2
N3
Occurrence of NSM	0.008	0.000	2.275 (1.696–3.052)
No
Yes
Adjuvant therapy	0.128
None
Chemotherapy
Radiotherapy
Chemoradiotherapy
The number of resected lymph nodes	0.092
≤15
>15
Tumor length	0.099
≤4
>4

Abbreviations: NSM, nodal skip metastasis; HR, hazard rate; CI, confidence interval.