Table 5. Meta-analysis results for association between RET/PTC fusion genes and sex in patients with PTC.

Female vs. male	No. of studies	No. of cases/controls	OR(95%CI)	P value	Model	I2	Pheta
For RET/PTC1 and 3
All	27	1211/474	1.04(0.81,1.33)	0.775	Fixed	0.00%	0.938
Region
Asian	9	373/138	1.42(0.81,2.49)	0.216	Fixed	0.00%	0.754
Western	18	838/336	0.95(0.72,1.27)	0.747	Fixed	0.00%	0.934
Radiation
Radiation exposure	11	369/174	0.94(0.63,1.41)	0.760	Fixed	0.00%	0.941
Non-radiation exposure	17	721/258	1.28(0.90,1.82)	0.171	Fixed	7.20%	0.370
For RET/PTC1
All a	16	832/324	1.21(0.87,1.69)	0.256	Fixed	0.00%	0.857
Region
Asian	5	213/62	0.98(0.48,2.01)	0.962	Fixed	0.00%	0.604
Western	11	619/261	1.28(0.88,1.87)	0.193	Fixed	0.00%	0.796
Radiation
Radiation exposure	4	185/104	1.22(0.70,2.11)	0.482	Fixed	0.00%	0.892
Non-radiation exposure	13	581/192	1.69(1.04,2.74)	0.034	Fixed	0.00%	0.768
For RET/PTC3
All,b	17	785/304	0.87(0.60,1.27)	0.466	Fixed	0.00%	0.625
Region
Asian	5	155/40	1.54(0.59,3.99)	0.378	Fixed	0.00%	0.763
Western	11	619/261	0.77(0.51,1.17)	0.223	Fixed	0.00%	0.527
Radiation
Radiation exposure	4	185/104	0.82(0.45,1.48)	0.504	Fixed	0.00%	0.903
Non-radiation exposure	11	570/186	1.06(0.60,1.87)	0.847	Fixed	0.00%	0.696

^aP-value for heterogeneity test;

^bData from Rao et al. [7] and Detours et al. [31] showed that RET/PTC1 gene prevalence was 100% in both female and male groups and that the OR and standard error could not be estimated; therefore, these studies were excluded. The statistically significant results are highlighted in bold.