Table 2. The pooled data on survival of meta-analysis.
| Variables | Na | Caseb | Pooled data |
Heterogeneity |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HR (95% CI) | P | I2 | Ph | |||
| Dichotomous variables (High level vs. Low level) | ||||||
| OS | ||||||
| Overall | 14 | 3312 | 0.923 (0.653, 1.306) | 0.652 | 85.40% | <0.001 |
| By ethnicity | ||||||
| Asian | 11 | 2380 | 0.928 (0.614, 1.402) | 0.722 | 85.80% | <0.001 |
| Caucasian | 2 | 928 | 0.841 (0.660, 1.071) | 0.159 | 0% | 0.709 |
| By cancer | ||||||
| Digestive system | 7 | 2468 | 1.158 (0.789, 1.700) | 0.453 | 80.40% | <0.001 |
| Other | 6 | 844 | 0.709 (0.352, 1.427) | 0.335 | 88.80% | <0.001 |
| By case number | ||||||
| >200 | 5 | 2604 | 1.340 (0.934, 1.921) | 0.112 | 85.70% | <0.001 |
| <200 | 8 | 708 | 0.679 (0.388, 1.186) | 0.173 | 77.60% | <0.001 |
| By analysis method | ||||||
| MV | 7 | 2199 | 0.899 (0.556, 1.455) | 0.666 | 90.80% | <0.001 |
| UV | 6 | 1113 | 0.955 (0.573, 1.590) | 0.858 | 67.40% | 0.005 |
| By NOS score | ||||||
| High quality | 10 | 3069 | 0.878 (0.596, 1.292) | 0.508 | 87.50% | <0.001 |
| Low quality | 3 | 243 | 1.127 (0.423, 2.999) | 0.811 | 77.40% | 0.012 |
| By sample | ||||||
| Blood | 5 | 1900 | 1.624 (1.211, 2.177) | 0.001 | 71.90% | 0.007 |
| Tissue | 9 | 1412 | 0.604 (0.406, 0.899) | 0.013 | 65.10% | 0.003 |
| DFS | ||||||
| Overall | 6 | 1850 | 0.997 (0.599, 1.659) | 0.99 | 85.60% | <0.001 |
| By ethnicity | ||||||
| Asian | 5 | 1578 | 0.964 (0.508, 1.828) | 0.909 | 87.50% | <0.001 |
| Caucasian | 1 | 272 | 1.010 (0.690, 1.479) | 0.959 | — | — |
| By cancer | ||||||
| Digestive system | 5 | 1791 | 1.127 (0.672, 1.891) | 0.65 | 86.50% | <0.001 |
| Other | 1 | 59 | 0.399 (0.138, 1.151) | 0.089 | — | — |
| By case number | ||||||
| >200 | 3 | 1488 | 1.582 (1.026, 2.439) | 0.038 | 78.40% | 0.01 |
| <200 | 3 | 362 | 0.593 (0.411, 0.857) | 0.005 | 0% | 0.546 |
| By analysis method | ||||||
| MV | 3 | 1084 | 1.073 (0.605, 1.902) | 0.809 | 83.40% | 0.002 |
| UV | 3 | 766 | 0.753 (0.204, 2.789) | 0.672 | 86.20% | 0.001 |
| By NOS score | ||||||
| High quality | 4 | 1682 | 1.274 (0.754, 2.153) | 0.365 | 88.20% | <0.001 |
| Blood quality | 2 | 168 | 0.398 (0.178, 0.887) | 0.024 | 0.00% | 0.993 |
| By sample | ||||||
| Blood | 3 | 1488 | 1.582 (1.026, 2.439) | 0.038 | 78.40% | 0.01 |
| Tissue | 3 | 362 | 0.593 (0.411, 0.857) | 0.005 | 0% | 0.546 |
| Three categorical variables | ||||||
| Low level vs. middle level | 3 | NA | 1.456 (0.556, 3.811) | 0.444 | 71.90% | 0.029 |
| High level vs. middle level | 3 | NA | 1.654 (0.875, 3.124) | 0.121 | 38.70% | 0.195 |
aNumbers of studies included in the meta-analysis; bNumber of included patients.
NOS: Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale; OS: overall survival; DFS: disease-free survival; MV: multivariate analysis; UV: univariate analysis; HR: hazard ratio; 95% CI: confidence interval; P: p value of pooled HR; I2: value of Higgins I-squared statistics; Ph: p value of Heterogeneity test; NA: not available.