Prognostic effect of excessive chemotherapy cycles for stage II and III gastric cancer patients after D2 + gastrectomy

Table 1 Patient characteristics before and after propensity score matching based on the number of chemotherapy cycles for stage II gastric cancer

Variables	Before PSM		P value	After PSM		P value
	< 9 cycles, n = 125	≥ 9 cycles, n = 287		< 9 cycles, n = 97	≥ 9 cycles, n = 97
Sex			0.022			0.718
Male	95	245		77	79
Female	30	42		20	18
Age in yr	55.38 ± 10.91	60.44 ± 9.85	< 0.001	56.46 ± 10.10	56.46 ± 10.10	0.215
Depth of tumor invasion			0.248			0.998
T1	7	6		5	4
T2	11	18		10	10
T3	79	195		60	62
T4	28	68		22	21
Number of positive lymph nodes			0.064			0.740
0	64	172		52	49
1-2	53	107		39	43
3-6	4	5		4	3
≥ 7	4	3		2	2
Type of gastrectomy			0.448			0.249
Proximal	14	24		10	8
Distal	41	93		32	26
Total	0	170		55	63
Vascular invasion			0.561			0.468
Negative	77	168		54	59
Positive	48	119		42	38
Neural invasion			0.719			1.000
Negative	79	176		64	64
Positive	46	111		33	33
Lauren classification			0.793			0.493
Intestinal	60	143		47	52
Diffuse	27	58		21	19
Mixed	38	86		29	26
Maximum diameter of tumor in cm			0.603			0.410
< 6	87	207		70	75
≥ 6	38	80		27	22
Surgical margin			0.740			0.562
Negative	123	281		95	96
Positive	2	6		2	2
HER2			0.337			0.911
Negative	70	171		55	54
Positive	55	116		42	43

PSM: Propensity score matching.