Table 2. Summary of the meta-analysis results.

	Variable	No. of studies	No. of patients	Effects model	HR (95% CI)	p	Heterogeneity
							I2(%)	Ph
OS	Overall	11	3,430	R	1.42(1.25–1.61)	<0.001	63.6	0.002
	Ethnicity
	Asian	6	2,794	R	1.51(1.08–2.11)	0.016	76.6	0.001
	Caucasian	5	636	F	1.59(1.27–1.98)	<0.001	15.2	0.318
	Sample size
	Large	4	2,487	R	1.44(0.94–2.21)	0.098	80.8	0.001
	Small	7	943	F	1.66(1.38–1.99)	<0.001	7.8	0.369
	Treatment
	Nonsurgery	6	992	R	1.58(1.23–2.02)	<0.001	50.4	0.073
	Surgery	5	2,438	R	1.54(1–2.35)	0.048	73.7	0.004
	Cut-off
	PLR < 180	6	1,810	R	1.52(1.08–2.14)	0.017	76.1	0.001
	PLR > 180	5	1,620	F	1.61(1.3–1.99)	<0.001	11.8	0.339
DFS/PFS	Overall	5	1,635	F	1.19(1.02–1.4)	0.027	46.8	0.111
	Ethnicity
	Asian	4	1,541	R	1.13(0.98–1.33)	0.165	20.8	0.285
	Caucasian	1	94	−	1.8(1.15–2.81)	0.01	−	−
	Sample size
	Large	3	1,444	F	1.12(0.94–1.34)	0.205	46.6	0.154
	Small	2	191	F	1.55(1.09–2.22)	0.015	13.8	0.281
	Treatment
	Nonsurgery	2	460	R	1.42(0.95–2.13)	0.086	53.3	0.144
	Surgery	3	1,175	F	1.11(0.91–1.34)	0.312	45.3	0.161

R: random-effects model; F: fixed-effects model; P_h: p value of Q test for heterogeneity.