Connective Tissue Growth Factor in Digestive System Cancers: A Review and Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis.

First author and year	Region	Tumor type	Sample size	Cut-off value	Detection method	Outcome measures	Variance analysis	Clinical parameters
Kang 2018	China (HK)	GC	145	>50%	IHC	OS	U, M	Gender, age, grade, LNM, TNM stage
Jia 2017	China	HCC	374	NR	IHC	OS, DFS	U, M	Gender, age, size, number, VI, CF
Wang 2010	China	HCC	88	Median	Elisa	OS, DFS	M	Gender, age, size, number, CF
Lin 2005	China	CRC	119	>50%	IHC	OS, DFS	U	Gender, grade, LNM, TNM stage
Kim 2014 (cohort 1)	Korea	HCC	314	>50%	IHC	DFS	U, M	Gender, age, size, grade, TNM stage, number, VI, CF
Kim 2014 (cohort 2)	Korea	HCC	42	>50%	IHC	DFS	NR	Gender, age, size, grade, TNM stage, number, VI, CF
Liu 2008	China	GC	122	>50%	IHC	OS	M	Gender, age, size, grade, LNM, TNM stage
Mao 2010	China	GC	73	Fold change	qRT-PCR	NR	NR	Gender, age, size, grade, LNM, TNM stage
Lin 2011	China (TW)	CRC	136	>50%	IHC	OS, DFS	NR	Gender, size, grade, LNM, TNM stage
Gardini 2005	Italy	ICC	55	>50%	IHC	OS, DFS	U	Grade
Zhou 2009	China	ESCC	80	>25%	IHC	OS	M	Gender, age, grade, LNM, TNM stage
Alvarez 2014	Chile	GBC	182	>50%	IHC	OS	NR	NR

GC: gastric cancer; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; CRC: colorectal cancer; ICC: intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; ESCC: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; GBC: gallbladder cancer; IHC: immunohistochemistry; qRT-PCR: quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction; OS: overall survival; DFS: disease-free survival; RFS: recurrence-free survival; M: multivariate; U: univariate; NR: not reported; LNM: lymph node metastasis; TNM: tumor node metastasis; VI: vascular invasion; CF: capsule formation.