Impact of time from diagnosis to chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer: A Propensity Score Matching Study to Balance Prognostic Factors

Table 1 Characteristics of patients with advanced gastric cancer

Characteristics	Total	Early WT	Elective WT	P value
No.	110	46	64
Disease status Unresectable/ recurrent	103/7	43/3	60/4	1.000
Waiting time (WT), d, median (IQR)	17 (12.5, 26)	10 (7, 13)	24 (19. 36)	P < 0.0001
Male sex, n, %	79, 72%	34, 74%	45, 70%	0.6743
Age, yr, median (IQR)	70 (64, 78)	71 (64, 80)	67 (62, 75)	0.1490
BMI, median (IQR)	20.3 (18.6, 22.8)	21.1 (19.0, 22.8)	19.9 (18.4, 22.9)	0.5298
Diabetes mellitus, n, %	15, 14%	5, 11%	10, 17%	0.4158
Hypertension, n, %	36, 35%	16, 36%	20, 34%	1.000
Dementia, n, %	2, 2%	1, 2.2%	1, 1.7%	1.000
Chronic kidney disease, n, %	43, 41%	19, 42%	24, 40%	0.8434
Charlson comorbidity index, median (IQR)	0 (0, 1)	0 (0, 0.5)	0 (0, 1)	0.3884
Low/medium/high/missing	73 (70%)/29 (28%)/3 (3%), 5(5%)	34/9/2/1	39/20/1/4
PS 0-1, n, %	95, 86%	41, 89%	54, 84%	0.8234
Histology type, intestinal n, %	40, 36%	18, 39%	22, 35%	0.5228
HER 2 IHC 3+< or FISH (+), n, %	26, 26%	12, 26%	14, 22%	0.6080
Gastric cardia tumor site, n, %	25, 23%	7, 15%	18, 29%	0.1130
Target lesion, n, %	91, 91%	41, 91%	50, 91%	1.000
No. of metastatic lesions ≤ 1, %	39, 35%	16, 35%	23, 36%	1.000
CEA, median (IQR)	6.5 (2.2, 40.9)	6.5 (2.4, 80)	5.7 (2, 25)	0.4624
CA19-9, median (IQR)	22 (5, 810)	54.5 (4.5, 2289)	17 (5, 630)	0.7326
Hb, g/dL, median (IQR)	11.3 (9.2, 12.7)	11.3 (9.3, 12.9)	11.2 (9.1, 12.7)	0.8995
Alb, g/dL, median (IQR)	3.3 (3, 3.7)	3.2 (2.8, 3.5)	3.4 (3, 3.7)	0.0129
CRP, mg/dL, median (IQR)	0.63 (0.15, 2.2)	1.3 (0.47, 4.6)	0.47 (0.08, 1.71)	0.0015
NLR, median (IQR)	3.8 (2.7, 6.5)	4.5 (3.1, 9.3)	3.4 (2.3, 5.4)	0.0112
Clinical symptoms, yes, %	93, 84.6%	41, 89.1%	52, 81.2%	0.2970

Chronic renal disease is defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min. The Charlson comorbidity index encompasses 19 medical conditions weighted 1–6 with total scores ranging from 0-37. For each condition, the scores reflected the risk as follows: 0, low; 1-2, medium; 3-4, high; and ≧5, very high risk. IQR: Interquartile range; PS: Performance status; BSC: Best supportive care; CTx: Chemotherapy; Alb: Albumin; CRP: C-reactive protein; NLR: Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio.