Table 4.
Heterogeneity test | Publication bias | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Clinicopathological features | Number of studies | Number of patients | OR (95% CI) | P value | I² (%) | P value | Model | Begg's P | Egger's P |
Gender | 20 | 2574 | 1.00 (0.84-1.19) | 0.986 | 0 | 0.541 | Fixed-effects model | 0.074 | 0.387 |
TNM Stage | 20 | 2452 | 1.93 (1.34-2.78) | <0.0001 | 72.4 | <0.0001 | Random-effects model | 0.27 | 0.253 |
Tumor differentiation | 21 | 2669 | 1.94 (1.32-2.85) | 0.001 | 72.7 | <0.0001 | Random-effects model | 0.08 | 0.487 |
Lymph node metastasis | 25 | 3439 | 1.67 (1.23-2.25) | 0.001 | 68.3 | <0.0001 | Random-effects model | 0.207 | 0.317 |
Distant metastasis | 9 | 1557 | 1.67 (1.24-2.26) | 0.001 | 1.7 | 0.42 | Fixed-effects model | 0.99 | 0.6 |
Invasion depth | 16 | 1695 | 1.98 (1.60-2.44) | <0.0001 | 20.4 | 0.211 | Fixed-effects model | 0.322 | 0.341 |
Lauren's classification | 10 | 1602 | 1.21 (0.97-1.53) | 0.096 | 46.3 | 0.053 | Fixed-effects model | 0.074 | 0.155 |
Vascular invasion | 5 | 1329 | 1.66 (0.70-3.95) | 0.253 | 72.2 | 0.006 | Random-effects model | 0.462 | 0.31 |
OR: odds ratio; CI: confidence interval.