Lack of CD44 variant 6 expression in rectal cancer invasive front associates with early recurrence

Table 3 Results of multivariate analysis

Variable	DFS			DSS
	Adjusted HR	95% CI	P	Adjusted HR	95% CI	P
Sex
Female (ref)	1.0			1.0
Male	1.9	1.0-3.5	0.04	1.5	0.7-3.0	0.3
Age
< 70 yr (ref)	1.0			1.0
≥ 70 yr	1.4	0.8-2.4	0.3	4.7	2.1-10.5	< 0.001
Postoperative T
T1-2 (ref)	1.0			1.0
T3	3.2	1.4-7.2	0.005	2.0	0.8-5.1	0.1
T4	5.9	2.0-17.0	0.001	4.8	1.4-17.0	0.02
Postoperative N
N0 (ref)	1.0			1.0
N1-2, Nx	2.0	1.1-3.7	0.02	0.8	0.4-1.7	0.6
1Postoperative grade
G1 (ref)				1.0
G2				1.3	0.4-3.9	0.7
G3				5.2	1.6-17.4	0.007
Growth pattern
Expanding (ref)	1.0			1.0
Infiltrating	1.0	0.5-1.8	0.9	0.8	0.4-1.7	0.6
1CD44v6 staining pattern
“Front-positive” (ref)	1.0
“Front-negative”	1.4	0.8-2.6	0.2
Recurrence
No (ref)				1.0
Yes				74.3	17.0-326.7	< 0.001

¹Not significant in univariate analysis and thus not included in multivariate model. Ref: Reference category; HR: Hazard ratio; DFS: Disease-free survival; DSS: Disease-specific survival; CD44v6: CD44 variant 6.