Table 1.

Main characteristics of all included cohort studies.

Study	Year	Cancer type	Country	Study type	Included time	Total sample	Age	No. of males (%)	Stage	Cut-off selection	Cut-off value	Treatment methods	Follow-up	End points (analysis type)
Zhou H	2015	ICC	China	R	2005-2009	370	NA	236 (63.8%)	Mixed	NA	170 mg/L	With surgery	<5 years	OS (M)
Mizuguchi T	2009	HCC	Japan	R	2001-2005	100	NA	76	Mixed	ROC	150 mg/L	With surgery	≥5 years	OS (U)
Han WX	2016	AEG	China	R	January and July 2010	101	Mean 65	80 (79.2%)	Mixed	ROC	200 mg/L	With surgery	≥5 years	OS (M)
Gonda K	2017	GC	Japan	R	2013-2015	110	Median 66.2	56 (50.9%)	Metastatic	NA	180 mg/L	No surgery	<5 years	OS (M)
Chereches G	2017	CRC	Romania	P	2012-2015	72	Median 60	58.3%	Metastatic	NA	400 mg/L	No surgery	<5 years	OS (U), PFS(U)
Zhang L	2017	AEG	China	R	2010.10-2011	355	Median 64	281 (79.2%)	Mixed	ROC	208.33 mg/L	With surgery	≥5 years	OS (M)
Huang XT	2018	ICC	China	R	2006-2017	276	Median 58	147 (53.3%)	Mixed	ROC	184 mg/L	With surgery	≥5 years	OS (U), RFS (U)
Li JD	2018	HCC	China	R	2001-2014	1483	Mean 51	1317 (89%)	No metastatic	NA	170 mg/L	With surgery	≥5 years	OS(M), RFS(M)
Shimura T	2018	GC	Japan	R	2011-2013	30	NA	21 (70%)	Mixed	ROC	228 mg/L	With surgery	≥5 years	OS (M)
Shimura T	2018	HCC	Japan	R	2011-2013	25	Mean 69.6	22 (88%)	No metastatic	ROC	114 mg/L	With surgery	≥5 years	OS (M)
Zhang L	2018	HCC	China	R	2011-2013	230	Mean 51.60	193 (83.90%)	Mixed	ROC	152.5 mg/L	With surgery	<5 years	OS (M), RFS (U)

P: prospective; R: retrospectively; ICC: intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; AEG adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction; GC: gastric cancer; CRC: colorectal cancer; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; OS: overall survival; RFS: recurrence-free survival; PFS: progression-free survival; ROC: receiver operating characteristic; U: univariate analysis; M: multivariate analysis: NA: not available.