Table 2.
Baseline characteristics of included studies in this meta-analysis
| Study | Year | Country | Sample size | Gender (M/F) |
Age (years) Median(range) |
Study design | Study duration | Cancer type | TNM stage | Treatment | Cut-off value | Survival endpoints | Follow-up (months) Median(range) |
Survival analysis | NOS score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ishii, R. | 2021 | Japan | 78 | 54/24 | 79(70–97) | Prospective | Jan-Dec 2017 | HNC | I-IV | Mixed | ≥ 4 | OS | 1–40 | Univariate | 9 |
| Lin, Q. | 2022 | China | 154 | 147/7 | 60 | Retrospective | 2013–2016 | LC | I-IV | Surgery | ≥ 2 | OS, DFS | 1-100 | Multivariate | 7 |
| Yoshimura, T. | 2022 | Japan | 112 | 69/43 | 68(59–77) | Retrospective | 2009–2015 | OSCC | I-IV | Surgery | ≥ 4 | OS | 44.5(28.3–60.8) | Multivariate | 8 |
| Ding, T. | 2023 | China | 94 | 88/6 | 60.5(41–83) | Retrospective | 2012–2020 | HPC | I-IV | Surgery | ≥ 4 | OS | 1-100 | Multivariate | 7 |
| Lin, Q. | 2023 | China | 113 | 107/6 | 61 | Retrospective | 2013–2017 | HPC | III-IV | Mixed | ≥ 3 | OS, DFS | 1-110 | Multivariate | 8 |
| Pan, D. | 2023 | China | 398 | 291/107 | 50.9 | Retrospective | 2005–2020 | HNC | I-IV | Radiotherapy | ≥ 2 | OS | 27.6 | Univariate | 7 |
| Sakai, A. | 2023 | Japan | 102 | 93/9 | 70(47–87) | Retrospective | 2017–2022 | HNSCC |
Recurrent/ metastatic |
ICIs | ≥ 3 | OS, DFS | 13.5 | Multivariate | 8 |
| Yi, H. | 2023 | China | 427 | 407/20 | 60 | Retrospective | 2007–2017 | LC | I-IV | Surgery | ≥ 4 | OS, DFS | 77(1-160) | Univariate | 8 |
M: male; F: female; TNM: tumor (T), node (N), metastasis (M); HNC: head and neck cancer; LC: laryngeal cancer; OSCC: oral squamous cell carcinoma; HPC: hypopharyngeal cancer; HNSCC: head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; ICIs: immune checkpoint inhibitors; OS: overall survival; DFS: disease-free survival; NOS: Newcastle-Ottawa Scale