Table 1.
Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis (n = 10)
| First author, year | Country | No. of HCC patients/mean age (year)/male% | No. of healthy controls/mean age (year)/male% | No. of LC patients/mean age (year)/ male% | No. of CH patients/mean age (year)/male% | Method (source) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Okada, 1994 [7] | Japan | 73/–/– | 20/–/– | 24/–/– | 18/–/– | ELISA kit (Toray Fuji Bionics, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Ren, 2003 [8] | China | 59/50/71.2 | 15/–/– | – | – | ELISA kits (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) |
| Ren, 2003a [9] | China | 55/median: 51/72.7 | 15/–/– | – | – | ELISA kits (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) |
| Tachibana, 2007 [10] | Japan | 30/66.6/60 | 17/58.6/70.5 | 29/58/62.1 | 30/48.8/76.7 | Sandwich ELISA |
| Zekri, 2010 [11] | Egypt | 30/60.7/– | 9/50.9/77.8 | – | – | ELISA kits (R&D Systems, Inc. 614 McKinley Place N.E. MN 55413, USA) |
| Chao, 2012 [12] | Taiwan | 73/matched/91.8 | 30/matched/ matched | – | – | ELISA kits (R&D Systems Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA) |
| El-Tayeh, 2012 [13] | Egypt | 37/median: 55/78.4 | 16/median: 46/68.7 | 28/median: 49/78.6 | – | ELISA kits |
| Welling, 2012 [14] | USA | 90/61/76.7 | – | 180/53/71.7 | – | Bio-Plex kits (Millipore, Billerica, MA) |
| Yahya, 2013 [3] | Egypt | 20/matched/– | 20/matched/65 | – | – | ELISA kits (Orgenium Laboratories Business unit, Finland) |
| Zekri, 2015 [15] | Egypt | 192/56.7/79 | 95/33.4/22 | 96/54/70 | – | ELISA kits (R&D Systems, Inc., USA) |
ELISA – enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, HCC – hepatocellular carcinoma, LC – liver cirrhosis, CH – chronic hepatitis