Table 3. Characteristics of 5 included studies for evaluating the impact of elevated plasma fibrinogen levels on prognosis of EOC.

Study	Country	Duration of Study	FIGO stage	Cut-off values of plasma fibrinogen levels	No. of patients		Outcomes	Adjustment of potential confounding factors
					Higher levels of plasma fibrinogen	Lower levels of plasma fibrinogen
Polterauer et al. [20]	Austria	Not mentioned	I–IV	Per 100 units	422		PFS, OS	Age, CA-125, CRP, FIGO stage, grade, histology, residual tumor size
Qiu et al. [21]	China	2002–2005	I–IV	400 mg/dL	49	87	PFS, OS	Adjuvant chemotherapy, age, CA-125, FIGO stage, grade, histology, residual tumor size, thrombocytosis
Man et al. [22]	China	2000–2010	I–IV	400 mg/dL	80	110	PFS, OS	Adjuvant chemotherapy, age, FIGO stage, grade, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, residual tumor size, VTE
Zhang et al. [23]	China	2000–2012	I–IV	400 mg/dL	89	100	PFS, OS*	Age, albumin, ascites, CA-125, CRP, FIGO stage, grade, histology, NLR, PLR, residual tumor size
The current study	Korea	2000–2012	III–IV	Per 100 units	217		PFS, OS	Adjuvant chemotherapy, age, CA-125, FIGO stage, grade, histology, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, NLR, PLR, residual tumor size
				400 mg/dL	142	75

CRP, C-reactive protein; EOC, epithelial ovarian cancer; FIGO, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics; NLR, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio; OS, overall survival; PFS, progression-free survival; PLR, platelet to lymphocyte ratio; VTE, venous thromboembolism.

^*Not adjusted by potential confounding factors.