Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis

Author year	Country	Study period	Tumor stage	Gastrectomy type	LND	Group	Cases	Age	M/F	Follow-up (months)
Kitano 2002 [32]	Japan	1998.11–2001.3	EGC	DG	NA	LG OG	14 14	63.2 60.1	9/5 8/4	24.3 18.8
Hayashi 2005 [28]	Japan	1999.12–2001.11	EGC	DG	D1	LG OG	14 14	56 62	9/4 13/1	39 45
Huscher 2005 [30]	Italy	1992.11–1996.2	EGC, AGC	DG	D1, D2	LG OG	30 29	63.2 63.6	18/12 21/8	52.2 49.7
Lee 2005 [33]	Korea	2001.11–2003.8	EGC	DG	D2, DSL	LG OG	24 23	56.6 59.5	11/13 15/8	14 14
Cai 2011 [25]	China	2008.3–2009.12	AGC	PG, DG, TG	D2	LG OG	49 47	60.2 60.3	39/10 37/10	22.1 22.1
Hu 2012 [26]	China	2009.1–2011.5	EGC, AGC	DG	NA	LG OG	41 41	60.9 64.3	20/21 21/20	1 1
Takiguchi 2013 [36]	Japan	2003.7–2006.1	EGC	DG	D1	LG OG	20 20	61.5 62.5	12/8 13/7	60 60
Cui 2015 [27]	China	2010.11–2012.9	EGC, AGC	PG, DG, TG	D2	LG OG	128 142	60.1 57.5	88/40 98/44	1 1
Hu 2016 [29]	China	2012.9–2014.12	AGC	DG, TG	D2	LG OG	519 520	56.5 55.8	380/139 346/174	1 1
Kim 2016 [11]	Korea	2006.2–2010.8	EGC, AGC	DG, TG	D1, D2	LG OG	644 612	56.8 57.8	425/219 412/200	1 1
Yamashita 2016 [38]	Japan	2005.11–2008.2	EGC	DG	DSL	LG OG	31 32	58 61	17/14 25/7	63 63
Luo 2017 [40]	China	2008.5–2012.4	AGC	DG	D2	LG OG	62 62	64.0 64.0	42/20 43/19	36 36
Zhou 2017 [39]	China	2012–2015	EGC	PG, DG, TG	D1, D2	LG OG	100 100	53.2 53.1	50/50 50/50	60 60
Shi 2017 [35]	China	2010.1–2012.6	AGC	PG, DG, TG	D2	LG OG	162 160	55.2 55	122/40 105/55	1 1
Katai 2017 [31]	Japan	2010.3–2013.11	EGC, AGC	DG, PPG	D1, D2	LG OG	457 455	63 64	289/173 275/184	1 1
Wang 2018 [37]	China	2014.3–2017.8	AGC	DG, TG	D2	LG OG	222 220	59.4 60.6	144/78 133/87	1 1
Park 2018 [34]	Korea	2010.6–2011.11	AGC	DG	D2	LG OG	100 96	58.6 60.1	69/31 65/31	38.2 38.2

EGC early gastric cancer, AGC advanced gastric cancer, LND lymph node dissection, PG proximal gastrectomy, DG distal gastrectomy, TG total gastrectomy, PPG pylorus preserving gastrectomy, DSL dissecting selected lymph nodes, M male, F female