Statistical analysis
Continuous variables were expressed as (mean±SD) or median (P25, P75),
the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparisons between two groups.
Categorical variables were expressed as n (%) and the Chi-square test
was utilized to compare rates between two groups. For the comparison of
survival rates between groups, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was
employed. Graphs were generated using GraphPad Prism 9 and R (version:
4.2.1). A significance level of p<0.05 was considered
statistically significant.