Table 3.

Meta-analysis of HRs from multivariate survival analysis.

Outcome	Groups	Number of studies	Model	HR (95% CI)	I 2 (%)	Egger test
OS	All study	17	Random	1.21 [1.31–1.38]	73	0.028
	Tumor site
	Esophagus	2	Fixed	1.25 [1.13–1.29]	0
	Stomach	3	Fixed	1.11 [1.03–1.19]	39
	Colorectal	8	Fixed	1.25 [1.19–1.30]	36
	Liver	2	Random	1.37 [1.10–1.69]	77
	Pancreas	2	Random	1.67 [0.90–3.03]	95
	Anatomic structure
	GT	13	Fixed	1.22 [1.18–1.25]	46
	Non-GT	4	Random	1.59 [1.23–2.04]	85
	Stage
	NMS	9	Random	1.33 [1.20–1.49]	78
	Mixed	3	Random	1.12 [1.01–1.25]	57
	MS	5	Fixed	1.32 [1.23–1.41]	27
	Ethnicity
	Asian	13	Random	1.27 [1.18–1.37]	78
	Non-Asian	4	Fixed	1.35 [1.20–1.49]	0
	Cut-off value
	<3.0	7	Random	1.35 [1.19–1.33]	83
	≥3.0	10	Fixed	1.25 [1.16–1.35]	63
	Treatment
	With surgery	13	Random	1.32 [1.28–1.37]	79
	No surgery	4	Fixed	1.27 [1.18–1.35]	0
CSS	All study	5	Random	1.18 [1.04–1.34]	65	0.105
	Tumor site
	Colorectal	2	Fixed	1.47 [1.19–1.82]	0
	Anatomic structure
	GT	4	Random	1.23 [1.02–1.52]	72
	Stage
	Mixed	2	Fixed	1.06 [0.99–1.22]	26
	MS	2	Fixed	1.47 [1.19–1.82]	0
	Ethnicity
	Asian	3	Random	1.20 [0.96–1.52]	77
	Non-Asian	2	Random	1.19 [0.95–1.49]	12
	Cut-off value
	<3.0	2	Fixed	1.12 [1.04–1.22]	44
	≥3.0	3	Random	1.27 [0.93–1.69]	79
DFS/RFS	All study	12	Random	1.26 [1.16–1.38]	83	0.025
	Tumor site
	Stomach	2	Fixed	1.06 [0.98–1.18]	25
	Colorectal	6	Random	1.16 [1.09–1.25]	52
	Liver	2	Fixed	1.37 [1.25–1.49]	16
	Anatomic structure
	GT	9	Fixed	1.12 [1.09–1.16]	46
	Non-GT	3	Random	1.59 [1.19–2.08]	89
	Stage
	NMS	8	Random	1.30 [1.15–1.47]	85
	MS	3	Random	1.30 [1.08–1.56]	85
	Ethnicity
	Asian	8	Random	1.25 [1.11–1.41]	88
	Non-Asian	4	Random	1.32 [1.10–1.59]	32
	Cut-off value
	<3.0	5	Random	1.45 [1.14–1.89]	90
	≥3.0	7	Random	1.18 [1.09–1.28]	74

HR: hazard ratio; CI: confidence interval; OS: overall survival; CSS: cancer-specific survival; DFS: disease-free survival; RFS: recurrence-free survival; GT: gastrointestinal tract; NMS: nonmetastatic stage; MS: metastatic stage.