Table 1. Characteristics of studies about ABT and hepatocellular carcinoma included in the meta-analysis.

Author	PublicationYear	Study type	Number of patients			ABTRate (%)	Age(mean,Y)	Sex(male%)	LiverCirrhosis(%)	Child A(%)	TNM stage		TransfusedUnits	Study quality
			ABT+	ABT−	Total						I+II	III+IV
Matsumata et al16	1993	RCS	54	72	126	42.86	57.6	83.3	56.5					9
Itasaka et al17	1995	PCS	38	33	71	53.52	58.1	85.9	90.1	94.4			9.9	9
Yamamoto et al18	1996	RCS	85	301	386	22.02	59.7	80.6	59.3	68.7				6
Asahara et al19	1999	RCS	23	152	175	13.14	60.1	76.0	70.3		75	56		8
Makino et al20	2000	RCS	117	78	195	60.00	60.8	80.0	71.3	67.7				9
Kitagawa et al21	2001	PCS	26	52	78	33.33	60.0		55.5					7
Kwon et al9	2001	PCS	53	55	108	49.07	62.0	76.9	48.2	80.0	108	0	5.3	9
Ercolani et al22	2002	RCS	71	153	224	31.07	62.5	81.3	78.6	82.6				6
Sasaki et al23	2002	PCS	23	52	75	30.67	61.7	78.7		61,3	55	20		5
Wei et al24	2003	RCS	45	110	155	29.03	52.0	78.7	34.9				3.5	6
Hanazaki et al8	2005	RCS	210	158	368	57.07	62.4	75.6	52.2	78.3	300	68		9
Laurent et al25	2005	RCS	36	72	108	33.33	64.0	82.4	63.0		68	40		6
Sasaki et al26	2006	RCS	184	233	417	44.12		74.2	67.9	74.2	339	78		8
Sugita et al27 *	2008	RCS	101	120	221	45.70	63.2	77.0	54.5				7.9	9
Kaibori et al28	2008	RCS	269	141	410	65.61	64.2	79.8	39.5		264	136	5.0	9
Wang et al29	2009	RCS	62	411	473	13.11	53.1	80.1	44.4	83.3	400	73		8
Choi et al30	2009	RCS	91	96	187	48.66	51.0	75.4	56.7		99	88		6
Abdel-Wahab et al31	2010	RCS	87	72	159	54.72	54.8	75.0		87.0	138	37	3.0	7
Nanashima et al32	2011	RCS	100	83	183	54.64	65.0	80.9						7
Okamura et al33	2011	RCS	87	289	376	23.14	61.4	80.6		94.2	213	163		7
Yang et al34	2011	RCS	164	141	305	53.77	49.2	91.5	76.7	88.5	117	188	5.8	7
Kuroda et al35	2012	RCS	76	759	835	9.10	63.5	76.9	51.6	85.4			4.2	9

ABT+, allogenenic blood transfused; ABT−, non-allogenenic blood transfused; RCS, retrospective cohort study; PCS, prospective cohort study.

^*Study provided cancer-related death data and could not be included.