Table I.

Main characteristics of the 11 studies included in the final meta-analysis.

First author (publication year)	Language	Population	Study from PubMed	No. of patients (M/F)	Median age (years)	VEGF detection method	Cut-off for VEGF positivity (%)	Blinded readingb	No. of readersa	OR or HR estimatec	Resultsd	Refs.
Sheidow et al (2000)	English	Canada	Yes	25/22	62.1	Antibody	5	Yes	2	Data extrapolated	Positive	13
Clarijs et al (2001)	English	Netherlands	Yes	-/-	-	Antibody	-	-	-	Data extrapolated	Negative	20
Ugurel et al (2001)	English	Germany	Yes	63/62	-	Antibody	363.8 pg/ml	-	-	Reported in text	Positive	19
Boyd et al (2002)	English	Netherlands	Yes	14/16	63	Antibody	-	Yes	1	Data extrapolated	Negative	21
Wang et al (2003)	Chinese	China	No	33/32	46.1	Antibody	5	-	2	Data extrapolated	Positive	22
Sahin et al (2007)	English	Turkey	Yes	10/8	39.5	Antibody	25	Yes	2	Data extrapolated	Positive	23
Zhao et al (2009)	Chinese	China	No	32/26	43	Antibody	5	Yes	2	Data extrapolated	Positive	24
Franco et al (2010)	English	Italy	Yes	23/30	61.8	Antibody	-	-	2	Data extrapolated	Positive	10
Xu et al (2011)	English	China	Yes	29/21	45.8	Antibody	5	Yes	2	Data extrapolated	Positive	25
Pang et al (2012)	Chinese	China	No	31/18	43	Antibody	-	-	2	Data extrapolated	Positive	26
Stitt et al (1998)	English	UK	Yes	15/10	59.7	Antibody	-	-	-	Data extrapolated	Positive	12

^aReaders of the histological slides.

^bThe readers of the slides were unaware of the clinical patient outcome.

^cReported in the text, or provided via mail by the authors, or extrapolated from the data provided by the authors in the text.

^dPositive, inverse association with VEGF expression; negative, no association. M, male; F, female; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; OR, odds ratio; HR, hazard ratio; -, missing data.