Table 2 Pathologic characteristics of the rectal cancer patients
| Â | Baseline | After propensity score matching | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Triweekly XELOX n = 277 | Capecitabine n = 533 | SMD | Triweekly XELOX n = 191 | Capecitabine n = 319 | SMD | |
ypT stage | ||||||
 ypT0 | 60 (21.7%) | 111 (20.8%) |  | 43 (22.5%) | 66 (20.7%) |  |
 ypT1–2 | 73 (26.4%) | 179 (33.6%) |  | 50 (26.2%) | 113 (35.4%) |  |
 ypT3–4 | 144 (52.0%) | 243 (45.6%) | 0.069 | 98 (51.3%) | 140 (43.9%) | 0.069 |
ypN stage | ||||||
 ypN0 | 186 (67.1%) | 395 (74.1%) |  | 133 (69.6%) | 231 (72.4%) |  |
 ypN1 | 70 (25.3%) | 113 (21.2%) |  | 46 (24.1%) | 73 (22.9%) |  |
 ypN2 | 21 (7.6%) | 25 (4.7%) | 0.157 | 12 (6.3%) | 15 (4.7%) | 0.073 |
No. of sampled lymph nodes | ||||||
 Median (range) | 11 (1–88) | 13 (0–73) | −0.094 | 11 (1–34) | 13 (0–73) | − 0.291 |
ypStage | ||||||
 0 | 57 (20.6%) | 106 (19.9%) |  | 41 (21.5%) | 62 (19.4%) |  |
 I | 57 (20.6%) | 145 (27.2%) |  | 41 (21.5%) | 91 (28.5%) |  |
 II | 70 (25.3%) | 142 (26.6%) |  | 49 (25.7%) | 78 (24.5%) |  |
 III | 89 (32.1%) | 131 (24.6%) |  | 57 (29.8%) | 83 (26.0%) |  |
 IV | 4 (1.4%) | 9 (1.7%) | 0.106 | 3 (1.6%) | 5 (1.6%) | 0.059 |
Primary tumor downstaging | ||||||
 Yes | 193 (69.7%) | 414 (77.7%) |  | 137 (71.7%) | 249 (78.1%) |  |
 No | 84 (30.3%) | 119 (22.3%) | 0.174 | 54 (28.3%) | 70 (21.9%) | −0.101 |
pCR | ||||||
 Yes | 56 (20.2%) | 106 (19.9%) |  | 40 (20.9%) | 62 (19.4%) |  |
 No | 221 (79.8%) | 427 (80.1%) | 0.008 | 151 (79.1%) | 257 (80.6%) | 0.037 |
RCRG | ||||||
 1 | 139 (50.2%) | 283 (53.1%) |  | 95 (49.7%) | 167 (52.4%) |  |
 2 | 82 (29.6%) | 210 (39.4%) |  | 68 (35.6%) | 128 (40.1%) |  |
 3 | 11 (4.0%) | 35 (6.6%) | 0.140 | 7 (3.7%) | 21 (6.6%) | −0.096 |
 Undermined | 45 (16.2%) | 5 (0.9%) |  | 21 (11.0%) | 3 (0.9%) |  |