Table 2.

The results of meta-analysis in thyroid cancer.

					Heterogeneity		Effect model	Publication bias
Parameters	No. of studies	Groups	HR/OR, 95% CI	Significance (P value)	I2 (%)	P		Funnel plot	Begg	Egger
DFS[17,18,22–24,26,27]	8	–	3.37 (2.54, 4.48)	<.00001	4	.40	Fixed	Symmetry	0.266	0.007
OS[22,23,26]	3	–	2.52 (1.20, 5.32)	.01	0	.61	Fixed	Symmetry	0.296	0.045
Age[17,19–21,27,29]	6	≥45 or <45	0.85 (0.63, 1.13)	.27	0	.77	Fixed	Symmetry	0.024	0.031
Gender[17,18,20–23,25–29]	15	Male or female	1.13 (0.78, 1.65)	.52	56	.004	Random	Symmetry	0.882	0.888
Tumor size[17–21,25,27,28]	11	≥2 cm or <2 cm	1.32 (1.03, 1.69)	.03	0	.54	Fixed	Symmetry	1.000	0.238
Recurrence[17,19,27]	3	Positive or negative	1.92 (1.13, 3.26)	.02	0	.59	Fixed	Symmetry	0.296	0.655
TNM stage[18–24,28,29]	12	III–IV or I–II	1.57 (0.78, 3.14)	.21	85	<.00001	Random	Symmetry	0.222	0.380
Extrathyroidal extension[17–21,25–28]	12	Positive or negative	1.61 (1.24, 2.10)	.0003	10	.35	Fixed	Symmetry	0.337	0.580
Capsular invasion[18,22,24]	7	Positive or negative	0.83 (0.33, 2.08)	.69	83	<.00001	Random	Symmetry	0.453	0.545
Lymphovascular invasion[17,18,28]	6	positive or negative	1.10 (0.73, 1.66)	.65	30	.21	Fixed	Symmetry	0.573	0.353
Multifocality[17–22,24–29]	15	Multifocal or unifocal	0.75 (0.61, 0.94)	.01	0	.66	Fixed	Symmetry	0.729	0.482
Thyroiditis[17–19,21,24–29]	14	Present or absent	1.41 (1.10, 1.80)	.007	27	.17	Fixed	Symmetry	0.511	0.629
Psamomma body[20,21,29]	3	Present or absent	0.34 (0.21, 0.55)	<.0001	0	.97	Fixed	Symmetry	1.000	0.646
Stromal calcification[20,21,29]	3	Present or absent	0.87 (0.56, 1.36)	.54	17	.30	Fixed	Symmetry	1.000	0.591
BRAFV600E mutation[19–21]	3	Mutated or wild type	1.83 (0.82, 4.09)	.14	59	.09	Random	Symmetry	1.000	0.922
Bilateral distribution[22,28]	2	Unilateral or bilateral distribution	0.83 (0.43, 1.60)	.58	0	.44	Fixed	Symmetry	1.000	—

TNM = tumor-nodes-metastases.