Table 1.
Main characteristics and quality of the studies included in the meta-analysis
| First author | Year | Country | Gender (male/female) |
Number | Criteria used for high HIF-1α expression | Clinical features | OS analysis | Quality evaluation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selection | Comparability | Outcome | Total points | ||||||||
| Lin | 2008 | China, Taiwan | 54/3 | 57 | >60% | NR | Reported | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Liang | 2011 | China | 49/40 | 89 | >25% | T/LN/D | Reported | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Huang | 2012 | China | 46/34 | 80 | >4a | LN | Reported | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Han | 2012 | Korea | 20/13 | 33 | >10% | NR | Reported | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Zheng | 2013 | China | 66/54 | 120 | >5% | T/LN/D | Reported | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Hwa | 2015 | Korea | 17/8 | 25 | >50% | NR | Reported | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Zhu | 2010 | China | 52/45 | 97 | Positive staining | T/LN/D | Reported | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Kang | 2013 | China | 28/21 | 49 | >10% | T/LN | Reported | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| Hong | 2013 | Australia | 186/47 | 233 | >10% | T/LN/D | Reported | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Eckert | 2010 | Germany | 60/20 | 80 | >6a | T/LN/D/TNM | Reported | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Fillies | 2005 | Germany | 71/14 | 85 | >5% | NR | Reported | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Santos | 2012 | Brazil | 56/10 | 66 | >6a | T/LN/D/TNM | Reported | 4 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| Mendes | 2014 | Brazil | 48/8 | 56 | >3a | T/LN/D/TNM | Reported | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Eckert | 2011 | Germany | 60/22 | 82 | >6a | T/LN/D/TNM | Reported | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Liang | 2008 | China | 40/25 | 65 | >10% | LN/TNM | NR | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Naruse | 2011 | Japan | 72/48 | 120 | >4a | T/LN | NR | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Zhang | 2014 | China | 52/28 | 80 | >4a | T/LN/D | NR | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Vasconcelos | 2015 | Brazil | 40/17 | 57 | >10% | TNM | NR | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
NR not reported, T tumor size, LN lymph node status, TNM TNM stage, D differentiation
aThe final score for samples was calculated based on a combination of percentage of stained cells and staining intensity