Table 1.
General characteristics of the prognostic oncological studies with repeated measurement predictors and/or intermediate events
| Characteristics | Levels | Total (N = 174) |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Hospital | 108 (62.1) |
| Clinical triala | 56 (32.2) | |
| Register database | 10 (5.7) | |
| Prospective study | Yes | 22 (12.6) |
| No | 152 (87.4) | |
| Multicenter | Yes | 77 (44.3) |
| No | 97 (55.7) | |
| Treatmentb | Surgical resection | 29 (16.7) |
| Chemotherapy | 19 (10.9) | |
| Immunotherapy | 17 (9.8) | |
| Radiotherapy | 14 (8.0) | |
| Endocrine therapy | 13 (7.5) | |
| Targeted therapy | 8 (4.6) | |
| Other same type of treatment | 25 (14.4) | |
| Different treatments | 49 (28.2) | |
| Number of patients analyzed at baseline | Median (Interquartile range) | 472 (199,1591) |
| Range [min, max] | [13,175000] | |
| [1–100) | 10 (5.7) | |
| [100–500) | 79 (45.4) | |
| [500–1000) | 29 (16.7) | |
| ≥1000 | 56 (32.2) | |
| Types of primary outcome (multiple choices) | ||
| Overall survival | Yes | 129 (74.1) |
| Other time-to-event outcome | Yes | 62 (35.6) |
| Binary outcome (e.g., response, recurrence, death) | Yes | 11 (6.3) |
| Characteristics of dynamic predictors | ||
| Number of dynamic predictors | Median (Interquartile range) | 1 (1,2) |
| 1 | 102 (58.6) | |
| 2 | 33 (19.0) | |
| 3 | 18 (10.3) | |
| >3 | 21 (12.1) | |
| Multiple dynamic predictors in a single model | Yes | 56 (32.2) |
| No | 118 (67.8) | |
| Types of dynamic predictors | ||
| Continuous variables | Yes | 111 (63.8) |
| Categorical variables | Yes | 74 (42.5) |
| Top five most analyzed dynamic predictors | ||
| Intermediate eventc | Yes | 42 (24.1) |
| Tumor size-based metric | Yes | 30 (17.2) |
| Prostate-specific antigen | Yes | 18 (10.3) |
| Score obtained from scaled | Yes | 15 (8.6) |
| Circulating free DNA | Yes | 13 (7.5) |
| Reporting of dynamic predictors | ||
| Reporting of the number of time pointse | Yes | 128 (73.6) |
| No | 46 (26.4) | |
| Reporting of the sample size at each time point | Yes | 74 (42.5) |
| No | 100 (57.5) | |
| Reporting of time interval for repeated measurement | Yes | 130 (74.7) |
| No | 44 (25.3) | |
| Reporting of follow up time for prognostic outcome | Yes | 132 (75.9) |
| No | 42 (24.1) | |
| Reporting of missing data | Yes | 36 (20.7) |
| No | 138 (79.3) | |
| Reporting of handling of missing data | Yes | 26 (14.9) |
| No | 148 (85.1) | |
aData from finished clinical trials were reused to construct dynamic prediction models. bTreatment here refers to non-static variables.
cIn the included studies, intermediate events mainly included local recurrence, distant metastasis, response, tumor burden change, cured, and others (hypothyroidism, clonal evolution, discharge alive, admission after hospital discharge).
dScore obtained from scale refers to the score derived from a specific measurement tool or questionnaire, such as a quality-of-life score, depression score, or fatigue score. eThe metric was considered reported if a study provided either the median or the maximum number of repeated-measured time points in its results.