Table 1.

Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis.

Study (year)	Country	Cancer type	Stage	Sample size	BLACAT1		Specimens	Method	Cut-off	Outcome	HR availability	NOS
					High	Low
Chen, 2018	China	Small‐cell lung cancer	I-IV	106	53	53	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	Median	OS	DE	8
Droop, 2017	Germany	Urothelial carcinoma	I-IV	106	53	53	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	Median	OS	DE	7
Gao, 2017	China	Colorectal cancer	I-IV	96	48	48	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	Median	OS	DE	8
He, 2013	China	Urothelial carcinoma	I-IV	102	60	42	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	FC >1.5	OS	SC	7
Hu, 2015	China	Gastric cancer	I-IV	85	32	53	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	Median	OS	SC	6
Liao, 2018 [17]	China	Papillary thyroid cancer	I-IV	87	43	44	Plasma	qRT‐PCR	Median	NR	NR	7
Niu, 2018 [18]	China	Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma	I-IV	50	26	24	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	NR	OS	SC	7
Su, 2017	China	Colorectal cancer	I-IV	48	24	24	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	Median	OS	DE	8
Wang, 2018	China	Cervical cancer	I-IV	133	68	65	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	Median	OS	DE	8
Ye, 2017	China	Non-small-cell lung cancer	I-III	48	28	20	Tissue	qRT‐PCR	NR	OS	SC	7

HR, hazard ratio; NOS, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale; qRT‐PCR, quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction; OS, overall survival; DE, data extrapolated; FC, fold change; SC, survival curve; NR, not reported.