Table 4.
Associations between circular RNA expression and clinicopathological factors in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
| Class | Included studies | χ2 | Pooled P-value |
| Gender | 18 | 36.426 | 0.4487 |
| Age | 18 | 32.517 | 0.635 |
| Smoking (yes vs no) | 5 | 8.597 | 0.5707 |
| Alcoholism | 5 | 19.684 | 0.0323 |
| Tumor size | 13 | 57.979 | 0.00012 |
| Tumor number (single vs multiple) | 7 | 14.3614 | 0.4231 |
| Encapsulation (incomplete/complete) | 3 | 3.8078 | 0.7026 |
| Differentiation grade (well/moderate/poor) | 11 | 66.9698 | 1.97 × 10−6 |
| Microvascular invasion | 3 | 19.261 | 0.003744 |
| TNM stage | 13 | 76.1066 | 2.51 × 10−7 |
| HBsAg | 7 | 14.4284 | 0.418306 |
| Serum AFP | 12 | 42.4249 | 0.0115 |
| Metastasis | 12 | 79.8852 | 6.35 × 10−8 |
| ALT | 3 | 5.4896 | 0.4827 |
| AST | 4 | 12.3545 | 0.1361 |
| GGT | 3 | 14.3614 | 0.4231 |
| Cirrhosis (yes/no) | 5 | 5.8236 | 0.8298 |
ALT: Alanine transaminase; AST: Aspartate transaminase; GGT: Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase; AFP: Alpha fetoprotein; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis; HbsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen.