Table 2. Meta-analysis of the association between NLR and clinicopathlogical factors in oral cancer.

Features	Number of studies	OR (95% CI)	P	Heterogeneity		Effects model	Publication bias
				I2(%)	P		Begg’s P	Egger’s P
Lymph node metastasis (positive vs negative)	5	1.76(1.36–2.28)	<0.001	0	0.452	FEM	0.806	0.858
T stage (T3-T4 vs T1-T2)	4	2.64(1.96–3.55)	<0.001	0	0.839	FEM	0.308	0.31
Tumor stage (advanced vs early)	5	2(1.22–3.27)	0.006	54.6	0.066	REM	0.624	0.274
Perineural invasion (positive vs negative)	3	2.36(1.07–5.22)	0.034	59.2	0.086	REM	1	0.676
Gender (male vs female)	5	1.11(0.75–1.63)	0.602	6.3	0.371	FEM	0.806	0.731
Differentiation (poor vs good/moderate)	4	1.46(0.89–2.41)	0.135	0	0.672	FEM	0.734	0.574
Lymph node metastasis (positive vs negative)	7	1.62(1.32–1.98)	<0.001	0	0.568	FEM	0.3	0.523
Tumor stage (advanced vs early)	7	2.63(2.12–3.25)	<0.001	46.9	0.08	FEM	0.23	0.095
T stage (T3-T4 vs T1-T2)	6	3.22(2.59–4.01)	<0.001	21.2	0.274	FEM	0.707	0.918
Gender (male vs female)	6	1.27(0.92–1.74)	0.146	10.5	0.348	FEM	0.707	0.428
Differentiation (poor vs good/moderate)	5	1.48(1.03–2.11)	0.033	0	0.819	FEM	0.806	0.709
Perineural invasion (positive vs negative)	4	1.83(1.4–2.39)	<0.001	44.8	0.143	FEM	0.734	0.446

Abbreviations: FEM, fixed-effects model; REM, random-effects model.