Elevation of circulating big endothelin-1: an independent prognostic factor for tumor recurrence and survival in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Table 1 Correlation between preoperative plasma big ET-1 levels and clinicopathologic variables in ESCC patients

Characteristic	Number of patients (n)	Preoperative plasma big ET-1 levels (pg/ml)	P value
Gender
Male	78	4.62 ± 0.72	0.285
Female	30	4.85 ± 0.63
Age, y
≤ 60 yrs	41	4.67 ± 0.55	0.876
>60 yrs	67	4.72 ± 0.86
Smoking
Light-smoker	42	4.78 ± 0.39	0.386
Non-smoker	66	4.65 ± 0.64
Drinking
Light-drinker	35	4.73 ± 0.27	0.674
Non-drinker	73	4.68 ± 0.50
Site of tumor
upper	12	4.75 ± 0.91	0.763
Middle	57	4.70 ± 0.57
Lower	39	4.69 ± 0.83
Tumor differenciation
Well	30	4.61 ± 0.54	0.354
Moderate	48	4.64 ± 0.68
Poor	30	4.88 ± 0.47
Tumor class
T1	33	4.42 ± 0.61	0.001
T2	38	4.60 ± 0.34
T3	37	5.01 ± 0.84
T4	0	0
Lymph node metastasis
N0	63	4.45 ± 0.59	<0.001
N1	45	5.06 ± 0.63
Stage
I	28	4.41 ± 0.52	0.003
II	48	4.68 ± 0.76
III	32	5.25 ± 0.82
IV	0	0

ISSN: 1471-2407