Journal of Gastric Cancer

The Korean Gastric Cancer Association (대한위암학회)
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Time-Dependent Effects of Prognostic Factors in Advanced Gastric Cancer Patients

  • Kwon, Jin-Ok (Department of Surgery, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Jin, Sung-Ho (Department of Surgery, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Min, Jae-Seok (Department of Surgery, Dongnam Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Kim, Min-Suk (Department of Pathology, Dongnam Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Lee, Hae-Won (Department of Thoracic Surgery, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Park, Sunhoo (Department of Pathology, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Yu, Hang-Jong (Department of Surgery, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Bang, Ho-Yoon (Department of Surgery, Konkuk University School of Medicine) ;
  • Lee, Jong-Inn (Department of Surgery, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences)
  • Received : 2015.10.15
  • Accepted : 2015.11.02
  • Published : 2015.12.31
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Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to identify time-dependent prognostic factors and demonstrate the time-dependent effects of important prognostic factors in patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 3,653 patients with AGC who underwent curative standard gastrectomy between 1991 and 2005 at the Korea Cancer Center Hospital. Multivariate survival analysis with Cox proportional hazards regression was used in the analysis. A non-proportionality test based on the Schoenfeld residuals (also known as partial residuals) was performed, and scaled Schoenfeld residuals were plotted over time for each covariate. Results: The multivariate analysis revealed that sex, depth of invasion, metastatic lymph node (LN) ratio, tumor size, and chemotherapy were time-dependent covariates violating the proportional hazards assumption. The prognostic effects (i.e., log of hazard ratio [LHR]) of the time-dependent covariates changed over time during follow-up, and the effects generally diminished with low slope (e.g., depth of invasion and tumor size), with gentle slope (e.g., metastatic LN ratio), or with steep slope (e.g., chemotherapy). Meanwhile, the LHR functions of some covariates (e.g., sex) crossed the zero reference line from positive (i.e., bad prognosis) to negative (i.e., good prognosis). Conclusions: The time-dependent effects of the prognostic factors of AGC are clearly demonstrated in this study. We can suggest that time-dependent effects are not an uncommon phenomenon among prognostic factors of AGC.

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References

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