STAT-3 correlates with lymph node metastasis and cell survival in gastric cancer

Table 1 Univariate analysis of factors affecting overall survival of 53 gastric cancer patients by Kaplan - Meier method

Factor	n	5-yr survival rate (%)	χ2	P value
Gender			0.217	0.641
Male	37	45.9
Female	16	43.8
Age at surgery (yr)			0.260	0.610
< 65	40	42.5
≥ 65	13	53.8
Tumor size (cm)			5.711	0.017
< 4	13	76.9
≥ 4	40	35.0
Tumor location			2.619	0.270
Lower stomach	28	57.1
Middle stomach	18	33.3
Upper stomach	7	28.6
Depth of primary tumor invasion			3.089	0.079
T1 + T2	6	83.3
T3 + T4	47	40.4
Status of lymph node metastasis			17.950	< 0.001
Negative	16	93.8
Positive	37	24.3
Lauren’s classification			3.280	0.070
Intestinal	25	60.0
Diffuse	28	32.1
STAT3			19.432	< 0.001
Negative	22	81.8
Positive	31	19.4
pSTAT3			40.444	< 0.001
Negative	27	85.2
Positive	26	3.8
SOCS-1			5.712	0.017
Negative	47	38.3
Positive	6	100.0
Survivin			4.295	0.038
Negative	14	71.4
Positive	39	35.9
Bcl-2			13.866	< 0.001
Negative	27	70.4
Positive	26	19.2

STAT3: Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3; pSTAT3: Phosphor-STAT3; SOCS-1: Suppressor of cytokine signaling-1.

Table 2 Multivariate analysis of factors affecting overall survival of 53 gastric cancer patients by Cox proportional hazards model

Factors	P value	Relative risk	95% CI
Status of lymph node metastasis	0.040	8.591	1.104-66.858
Tumor size	0.701
STAT3	0.225
pSTAT3	< 0.001	9.605	3.107-29.694
SOCS-1	0.429
Survivin	0.749
Bcl-2	0.213

STAT3: Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3; pSTAT3: Phosphor-STAT3; SOCS-1: Suppressor of cytokine signaling-1; CI: Confidence interval.