Table 1. Main characteristics and results of the eligible studies.

No. of paper	First author	Journal	Year	Country	Methods	Duration of Follow-up (months)	Cut-off point (high/low)	No.of patients	No.of Deceased/Alive
(1)	L. M. Sholl	Am J Surg Pathol	2010	USA	IHC	136	>5% (52/52)	104	57/47
(2)	P. Yuan	PLoS One	2010	USA	IHC	-	SCC (high >270, low <140) (29/11); ADC (high>193, low <10) (9/8)	57	-
(3)	Y. Lu	PLoS One	2010	USA	IHC	48	>5% (19/89)	89	33/13*
(4)	T. Wilbertz1	Mod Pathol	2011	Switzerland/USA	FISH	169	>30% (225/533)	758	235/33*
(5)	Y. R. Cai	Oncol Lett	2011	China	qPCR	-	Ratio>M +2 SD (30/85)	115	-
(6)	X. X. Li	Int J Mol Sci	2012	China	IHC	12	≥10% (31/13)	44	31/13
(7)	H. Sasaki	Exp Ther Med	2012	Japan	qPCR	120	Ratio>4 copies(42/85)	127	91/36
(8)	V. Velcheti	PLoS One	2013	Greece/USA	IF	60	Score>193(418/229)	647	392/255

Abbreviations: IHC, immunohistochemistry; qPCR, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction; FISH, fluorescence in situ hybridization; IF, immunofluorescence; SCC, squamous cell carcinomas; ADC, adenocarcinomas; M, mean; SD, standard deviation.

Note:

^*only with SCC patients;