Table 2.

Meta-analysis results.

Outcome	Variables		Number of studies	Model		HR (95% CI)		P heterogeneity
OS	ALL		37	Random		1.61 (1.33-1.96)		<0.001
	Cancer type
	Gastric		5	Fixed		1.42 (1.18-1.72)		0.105
	Hepatocellular		5	Random		2.28 (0.76-6.87)		<0.001
	Colorectal		4	Random		1.75 (0.99-3.11)		<0.001
	Esophageal		3	Random		1.77 (0.84-3.75)		0.024
	Cholangio		2	Fixed		0.98 (0.51-1.86)		0.937
	Breast		4	Random		1.66 (0.61-4.50)		0.017
	HNC		4	Fixed		2.97 (1.97-4.47)		0.515
	Thyroid		2	Random		1.20 (0.59-2.47)		0.003
	NSCLC		2	Fixed		0.65 (0.45-0.94)		0.767
	Others		6	Fixed		1.69 (1.30-2.19)		0.725
	Ethnicity
	Asian		21	Random		2.07 (1.47-2.92)		<0.001
	Caucasian		16	Random		1.29 (1.05-1.59)		<0.001
	Resource
	Univariate		14	Random		1.48 (1.01-2.17)		<0.001
	Multivariate		23	Random		1.69 (1.35-2.13)		<0.001
	Participate number
	Large		14	Random		1.41 (1.07-1.87)		<0.001
	Small		23	Random		1.83 (1.38-2.42)		<0.001
	Cut off level
	score
	score high		10	Random		1.87 (1.18-2.95)		<0.001
	score low		12	Random		1.49 (1.12-1.97)		0.001
	positive cells percentage
	25% positive cells		4	Random		1.48 (0.48-4.56)		<0.001
	Non-25% positive cells		3	Random		1.43 (0.60-3.41)		<0.001
DFS	ALL		8	Random		2.17 (1.03-4.59)		<0.001
	Ethnicity
	Asian		6	Fixed		3.40 (2.17-5.33)		0.336
	Caucasian		2	Random		0.39 (0.04-3.64)		0.002
	Resource
	Univariate		4	Random		1.95 (0.92-4.13)		0.012
	Multivariate		4	Random		2.24 (0.35-14.34)		<0.001
PFS	ALL		4	Random		1.09 (0.39-3.04)		0.015
RFS	ALL		6	Random		0.93 (0.64-1.35)		0.013

HR: hazard ratio; OS: overall survival; DFS: disease-free survival; PFS: progression-free survival; RFS: recurrence-free survival.