Fig. 3

Evaluation of the PLNR stratification of prognosis and detection of stage migration effects according to a PLNR cut-off value of 0.2. The cut-off value of 0.2 detected patients with stage migration effects in pN3 and pStage IV. A. pN3 patients with a PLNR ≥ 0.2 (n = 23) had a poorer prognosis than pN3 patients with a PLNR < 0.2 (n = 4). Moreover, pN3 patients with a PLNR < 0.2 had a similar prognosis to pN2 patients (n = 21) (5-year survival rate; pN3 PLNR < 0.2 vs. pN2 vs. pN3 PLNR ≥ 0.2: 50.0% vs. 42.9% vs. 4.3％). B. pStage IV patients with a PLNR ≥ 0.2 (n = 24) had a poorer prognosis than pStage IV patients with a PLNR < 0.2 (n = 9). Moreover, pStage IV patients with a PLNR < 0.2 had a similar prognosis to pStage III patients (n = 28) (4-year survival rate; pStage IV-PLNR < 0.2 vs. pStage III: 44.4％ vs. 51.9%)