Elevated serum levels of human relaxin-2 in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Table 1 Relationship between serum levels of human relaxin 2 and clinicopathological factors

Clinicopathological factors	Groups1		P value2
	A (n)	B (n)
Age (yr)			0.144
< 65 (n = 72)	21	51
≥ 65 (n = 69)	22	47
Tumor status			0.089
T1 (n = 16)	2	14
T2 (n = 14)	4	10
T3 (n = 75)	24	51
T4 (n = 36)	13	23
Lymph node involvement			0.003
Positive (n = 90)	32	58
Negative (n = 51)	11	40
Distant metastasis			0.027
Positive (n = 32)	21	11
Negative (n = 109)	22	87
Lymphovascular invasion			0.186
Positive (n = 42)	18	24
Negative (n = 99)	25	74
Stage (TNM)			0.035
I (n = 17)	7	10
II (n = 37)	8	29
III (n = 53)	10	43
IV (n = 34)	18	16
Cell differentiation			0.267
Well (n = 23)	9	14
Moderate (n = 90)	23	56
Poor (n = 28)	9	19

¹Patients were grouped by preoperative serum levels of human relaxin 2 (H2 RLN). In group B (n = 43), serum H2 RLN levels were ≥ 0.462 ng/mL, and in group A (n = 98), H2 RLN levels were 0.462 ng/mL;

²P values were determined by χ² test. TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis.