Aberrant methylation of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine gene and its significance in gastric cancer

Table 1 Relationship between expression levels of SPARC mRNA and clinicopathological characteristics, n (%)

Parameters	Total, n = 66	Expression level of SPARC gene		P value
		Low, n = 42	High, n = 24
Age in yr
< 60	21	16 (76.2)	5 (23.8)	0.186
≥ 60	45	26 (57.8)	19 (42.2)
Gender
Male	51	32 (62.7)	19 (37.3)	0.348
Female	15	10 (66.7)	5 (33.3)
Size in cm
< 5	27	18 (66.7)	9 (33.3)	0.372
≥ 5	39	24 (61.5)	15 (38.4)
Differentiation
Good/moderate	16	8 (50.0)	8 (50.0)	0.154
Poor	50	34 (68.0)	16 (32.0)
Location
Upper	8	3 (37.5)	5 (62.5)	0.759
Middle	18	8 (44.4)	10 (56.6)
Lower	40	31 (77.5)	9 (22.5)
Macroscopic type
Borrmann I + II	19	6 (31.6)	13 (68.4)	0.015a
Borrmann III + IV	47	36 (76.6)	11 (23.4)
TNM stage
I + II	27	7 (25.9)	20 (74.1)	0.001a
III + IV	39	35 (89.8)	4 (10.2)
Lymph node metastasis
-	18	6 (33.3)	12 (66.7)	0.001a
+	48	36 (75.0)	12 (25.0)

^aP < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. SPARC: Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine.