Table 4. The correlations between m6A regulators with clinicopathological characteristics in cancer patients.
| m6A regulator | Clinicopathological feature | Studies (n) | Patients (n) | References | OR (95% CI) | P value | Heterogeneity | Effects model | |
| I² (%) | P value | ||||||||
| METTL3 | Depth of invasion (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 9 | 1057 | Hua 2018; Lu 2020; Wang 2020; Xia 2020; Xu 2021; Yang 2020 (2); Xia 2019; Chen 2021; Guo 2022 | 1.85 (1.40–2.45) | 0.000 | 47.4 | 0.055 | Fix |
| Lymph Node Metastasis | 13 | 1421 | Liu 2020; Chen 2021; Guo 2022; Sun 2020; Lin 2022; Xia 2020; Xu 2022 (1); Xia 2019; Hua 2018; Lu 2020; Wang 2020; Yang 2020 (2); Xu 2021 | 2.37 (1.58–3.56) | 0.000 | 63.7 | 0.001 | Random | |
| TNM Stage (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 11 | 1303 | Xia 2019; Sun 2020; Xia 2020; Chen 2021; Lin 2022; Yang 2020 (2); Xu 2022 (1); Shengli 2022; Wang 2020; Deng 2019; Liu 2020 | 2.61 (2.03–3.36) | 0.000 | 12.7 | 0.323 | Fix | |
| Tumor size (>5 cm vs ≤ 5 cm) | 3 | 375 | Wang 2020; Xu 2022 (1); Yang 2020 (2) | 2.33 (1.51–3.61) | 0.000 | 0.0 | 0.886 | Fix | |
| Vascular invasion | 4 | 781 | Sun 2020; Li 2019 (1); Xu 2022 (1); Yue 2019 | 1.47 (1.05–2.05) | 0.024 | 0.0 | 0.508 | Fix | |
| Distant metastasis | 9 | 1091 | Chen 2021; Shengli 2022; Xu 2022 (1); Deng 2019; Sun 2020; Hua 2018; Lu 2020; Wang 2020; Yang 2020 (2) | 1.93 (0.99–3.78) | 0.054 | 67.5 | 0.002 | Random | |
| Clinical stage III–IV vs. II–II | 4 | 688 | Guo 2022; Li 2019 (1); Liu 2020; Lu 2020 | 1.05 (0.28–3.91) | 0.936 | 89.7 | 0.000 | Random | |
| Differentiation (Poor vs. Moderate/Well) | 4 | 997 | Li 2019 (1); Xia 2020; Yang 2020 (2); Hua 2018 | 1.22 (0.65–2.30) | 0.529 | 73.3 | 0.011 | Random | |
| Nerve invasion | 3 | 724 | Xu 2022 (1); Yue 2019; Li 2019 (1) | 1.26 (0.92–1.74) | 0.150 | 0.0 | 0.666 | Fix | |
| METTL14 | Depth of invasion (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 2 | 285 | Liu 2021; Yang 2020 (3) | 0.27 (0.13–0.58) | 0.001 | 0.0 | 0.739 | Fix |
| Lymph Node Metastasis | 3 | 357 | Wang 2022; Yang 2020 (3); Liu 2021 | 0.26 (0.09–0.73) | 0.011 | 60.6 | 0.079 | Random | |
| Distant metastasis | 2 | 285 | Liu 2021; Yang 2020 (3) | 0.12 (0.03–0.46) | 0.002 | 0.0 | 0.497 | Fix | |
| TNM Stage (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 4 | 466 | Chen 2020; Liu 2021; Wang 2022; Yang 2020 (3) | 0.21 (0.13–0.34) | 0.000 | 0.0 | 0.575 | Fix | |
| Tumor size (>5 cm vs. ≤5 cm) | 2 | 285 | Liu 2021; Yang 2020 (3) | 0.32 (0.05–2.14) | 0.241 | 79.6 | 0.027 | Random | |
| ALKBH5 | Vascular invasion | 2 | 102 | Guo 2020; Yang 2020 (1) | 0.39 (0.17–0.92) | 0.032 | 6.3 | 0.301 | Fix |
| Clinical stage (III–IV vs. I– II) | 2 | 148 | Yang 2020 (1); Huang 2018 | 0.98 (0.07–13.96) | 0.988 | 91.9 | 0.000 | Random | |
| Depth of invasion (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 4 | 775 | Nagaki 2020; Huang 2018; Li 2019 (2); Yang 2020 (1) | 0.84 (0.45–1.54) | 0.564 | 56.7 | 0.074 | Random | |
| Differentiation (Poor vs. Moderate/Well) | 4 | 729 | Guo 2020; Li 2019 (2); Yang 2020 (1); Nagaki 2020 | 0.81 (0.41–1.59) | 0.532 | 54.8 | 0.085 | Random | |
| Distant metastasis | 2 | 510 | Li 2019 (2); Yang 2020 (1) | 0.37 (0.02–5.60) | 0.475 | 71.7 | 0.060 | Random | |
| Lymph Node Metastasis | 5 | 936 | Li 2019 (2); Yu 2021; Nagaki 2020; Huang 2018; Yang 2020 (1) | 0.94 (0.51–1.75) | 0.851 | 65.4 | 0.021 | Random | |
| TNM Stage (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 3 | 715 | Huang 2018; Nagaki 2020; Li 2019 (2) | 1.03 (0.52–2.06) | 0.925 | 69.3 | 0.039 | Random | |
| FTO | Depth of invasion (T3-T4 vs. T1–T2) | 2 | 578 | Xu 2017; Li 2019 (2) | 0.89 (0.62–1.28) | 0.533 | 0 | 0.623 | Fix |
| Differentiation (Poor vs. Moderate/Well) | 4 | 997 | Ruan 2021; Xu 2017; Li 2019 (2); Zeng 2021 | 0.77 (0.34–1.77) | 0.537 | 78.3 | 0.003 | Random | |
| Distant metastasis | 3 | 902 | Xu 2017; Li 2019 (2); Ye 2020 | 1.19 (0.72–1.95) | 0.502 | 0 | 0.515 | Fix | |
| Lymph Node Metastasis | 3 | 628 | Xu 2017; Li 2019 (2); Zeng 2021 | 0.76 (0.22–2.67) | 0.671 | 83.5 | 0.002 | Random | |
| Nerve invasion | 2 | 419 | Ruan 2021; Zeng 2021 | 0.71 (0.42–1.22) | 0.218 | 0 | 0.687 | Fix | |
| TNM Stage (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 4 | 997 | Ruan 2021; Zeng 2021; Xu 2017; Li 2019 (2) | 0.98 (0.42–2.29) | 0.969 | 82.8 | 0.001 | Random | |
| YTHDF1 | Distant metastasis | 2 | 113 | Nishizawa 2018; Wei 2022 | 8.59 (2.58–28.60) | 0.000 | 0.0 | 0.863 | Fix |
| Tumor size (>5 cm vs ≤5 cm) | 2 | 170 | Li 2021; Wei 2022 | 4.75 (2.47–9.14) | 0.000 | 0.0 | 1.000 | Fix | |
| Lymph Node Metastasis | 3 | 716 | Wei 2022; Nishizawa 2018; Tsuchiya 2021 | 1.73 (0.38–7.80) | 0.476 | 84.1 | 0.002 | Random | |
| TNM Stage (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 3 | 716 | Wei 2022; Nishizawa 2018; Tsuchiya 2021 | 1.83 (0.42–7.94) | 0.418 | 88.4 | 0.000 | Random | |
| Vascular invasion | 2 | 183 | Li 2021; Nishizawa 2018 | 1.55 (0.21–11.37) | 0.665 | 85.7 | 0.008 | Random | |
| YTHDF2 | Lymph Node Metastasis | 2 | 676 | Tsuchiya 2021; Xu 2022 (2) | 1.59 (0.20–12.53) | 0.660 | 92.9 | 0.000 | Random |
| TNM Stage (T3–T4 vs. T1–T2) | 2 | 676 | Tsuchiya 2021; Xu 2022 (2) | 1.85 (0.30–11.54) | 0.512 | 90.0 | 0.002 | Random | |
Abbreviations: CI: confidence interval; OR: odds ratio.