Prognostic Role of the Circulating Tumor Cells Detected by Cytological Methods in Gastric Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Table 2

Results of subgroup analyses on PFS and OS.

Variables	OS				PFS
	HR [95% CI]		(%)		HR [95% CI]		(%)
Country
East Asia	2.30 [1.89–2.80]	9	0.0	0.557	1.74 [1.21–2.50]	4	44.4	0.145
Non-East Asia	1.89 [1.23–2.90]	4	67.8	0.025	2.72 [1.04–7.13]	3	68.5	0.042
Population
Resectable	2.38 [1.40–4.06]	5	66.3	0.018	—	1	—	—
Unresectable	2.16 [1.72–2.71]	8	0.0	0.690	2.03 [1.26–3.26]	6	66.1	0.011
Methodology
CellSearch	2.17 [1.78–2.65]	8	0.0	0.870	1.69 [1.31–2.20]	5	39.9	0.155
Non-CellSearch	2.86 [1.39–5.90]	5	70.0	0.010	4.43 [2.39–8.23]	2	0.0	0.667
CTC-high
Yes	2.03 [1.49–2.77]	4	11.0	0.338	1.65 [1.02–2.68]	3	60.8	0.078
No	2.33 [1.87–2.90]	9	38.1	0.114	2.52 [1.32–4.79]	4	58.6	0.064
Quality
High	2.15 [1.79–2.60]	10	38.2	0.103	2.17 [1.45–3.27]	6	60.9	0.026
Low	3.03 [1.71–5.37]	3	0.0	0.603	—	1	—	—
Overall	2.23 [1.86–2.66]	13	28.6	0.157	2.02 [1.36–2.99]	7	59.3	0.022

The superscript “” refers to heterogeneity.