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

Table 2 Relationship between methylation status of SPARC gene and clinicopathological characteristics, n (%)

Parameters	Total, n = 66	Methylation status of SPARC			P value
		U, n = 19	P, n = 11	M, n = 36
Age in yr
< 60	21	6 (28.6)	1 (4.8)	14 (66.7)	0.178
≥ 60	45	13 (28.9)	10 (22.2)	22 (48.9)
Gender
Male	51	17 (33.3)	8 (15.7)	26 (51.0)	0.323
Female	15	2 (13.3)	3 (20.0)	10 (66.7)
Size in cm
< 5	27	6 (22.2)	6 (22.2)	15 (55.6)	0.463
≥ 5	39	13 (33.3)	5 (12.8)	21 (53.8)
Differentiation
Good/moderate	16	6 (37.5)	4 (25.0)	6 (37.5)	0.278
Poor	50	13 (26.0)	7 (14.0)	30 (60.0)
Location
Upper	8	2 (25.0)	3 (37.5)	3 (37.5)	0.297
Middle	18	6 (33.3)	4 (22.2)	8 (44.4)
Lower	40	11 (27.5)	4 (10.0)	25 (62.5)
Macroscopic type
Borrmann I + II	19	9 (47.4)	6 (31.6)	4 (21.1)	0.002a
Borrmann III + IV	47	10 (21.3)	5 (10.6)	32 (68.1)
TNM stage
I + II	27	14 (51.9)	8 (29.6)	5 (18.5)	0.001a
III + IV	39	5 (12.8)	3 (7.7)	31 (79.5)
Lymph node metastasis
-	18	13 (72.2)	2 (11.1)	3 (16.7)	0.001a
+	48	6 (12.5)	9 (18.8)	33 (68.8)

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