Table 3.

Qualitative systematic review

Clinical question	Is nonoperative treatment using COX2 inhibitors effective for patients with extra-abdominal desmoid fibromatosis?
P	Patients with extra-abdominal desmoid fibromatosis
I	Nonoperative treatment using COX2 inhibitors
C	Watchful waiting
Clinical context	Since desmoid fibromatosis shrink spontaneously in some cases, careful follow-up by “wait and see” may be performed. Verify whether COX2 inhibitors are more useful for extra-abdominal desmoid fibromatosis than “wait and see” as a drug treatment.
Outcome	Response rate
Summary of indirectness	All 4 studies do not have a watchful waiting group
Summary of bias risk	All are retrospective studies and have a high risk of bias
Summary of inconsistencies	Subjects include first-onset and recurrent cases, and are inconsistent
Comment	All are retrospective and do not include the watchful waiting group, so the level of evidence is low.