Table 6. Grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluation (GRADE) evidence quality ratings for local and distant brain control outcomes.
The quality of evidence assessments was performed using GRADE system [22]. Abbreviations: SRS = stereotactic radiosurgery; DBC = distant brain control.
| Six-month Local control | 12-month Local control | 6-mo DBC | 12-month DBC | |
| Studies demonstrating significant improvement | 0/1 | 0/2 | 0/1 | 0/2 |
| SRS and Ipilimumab patients | 25 | 45 | 25 | 45 |
| SRS alone patients | 33 | 67 | 33 | 67 |
| Initial quality of evidence | Low (two plus) | Low (two plus) | Low (two plus) | Low (two plus) |
| Risk of bias | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) |
| Inconsistency | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) |
| Indirectness | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious |
| Imprecision | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) | Serious (-1) |
| Publication bias | Not likely | Not likely | Not likely | Not likely |
| Large effect | Not likely | Not likely | Not likely | Not likely |
| Dose response | No gradient | No gradient | No gradient | No gradient |
| All plausible residual confounding | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| GRADE overall quality of evidence | Very Low | Very Low | Very Low | Very Low |