Table 4.
Evaluation of the quality of evidence according to GRADE system
| Quality assessment | No. of patients | Hazard Ratios (95% CI) | Quality | Importance | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No of studies | Design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | TKI-induced hypertension | Control | |||
| Progression-free survival (follow-up median 5.6–43.2 years; measured with: follow-up) | |||||||||||
| 20 | observational studies | no serious risk of bias | serious1 | no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | reporting bias2 | 3021 | 1327 | 0.59 (0.48–0.71) | Very low | Critical |
| Overall survival (follow-up median 5.2–61.8 months; measured with: follow-up) | |||||||||||
| 17 | observational studies | no serious risk of bias | serious1 | no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | reporting bias3 | 2313 | 1804 | 0.57 (0.45–0.70) | Very low | Critical |
1The heterogeneity of this outcome was obvious between studies
2The shape of funnel plots was not symmetric. The Egger’s and Begg’s tests were further performed. The results indicated significant publication bias for studies, with merged PFS (Begg’s test, P = 0.015; Egger’s test, P = 0.028).
3The shape of funnel plots was not symmetric. The Egger’s and Begg’s tests were further performed. The results indicated significant publication bias for studies, with merged OS (Begg’s test, P = 0.026; Egger’s test, P = 0.085)