Review Article

Prognostic Models for Predicting Overall Survival in Patients with Primary Gastric Cancer: A Systematic Review

Table 1

Characteristics of 101 model developments.

Model developments (n = 101)

Study characteristics
 Publication year
  Before 20003
  2001–20107
  2011–201891
 Study location
  East Asia (China/Japan/Korea)76
  Non-Asian25
 Data source
  Clinical data/retrospective cohort91
  Prospective cohort7
  Randomized controlled trial3
Patient characteristics
 Male% (4/101 missing)67.6 (30.9, 80.3)a
 Age (5/101 missing)
  Median (min, max) of mean60.0 (51.0, 70.0)a
 Tumor TNM stage
  All46
  I–III36
  IV17
  No information2
 Gastrectomy
  No restriction28
  Only patients with gastrectomy71
  Only patients without gastrectomy2
Model development
  Sample size (training set) (14/101 missing)360 (29, 15320)a
  Number of events193 (14, 9560)a
  Event per variable (18/101 missing)25.1 (0.2, 1481.3)a
  Length of follow-up (month) (53/101 missing)44.0 (6.7, 111.6)a
 Start of outcome follow-up
  From diagnosis3
  From surgery49
  From other time pointsb15
  Unclear34
 Candidate selection methods
  Prespecification30
  Univariable analysis63
  Prespecification + univariable analysis5
  Unclear3
 Statistical model
  Cox proportional hazard regression90
  Othersc11
 Final predictor selection
  Full model10
  Stepwise (including forward and backward)68
  Unclear23
 Statistical assumptions ever checked9
 Number of final predictors5 (2, 53)a
 Formats of presentations
  Score35
  Nomogram47
  Equation9
  Others (decision tree and neural network)4
  No6
 Predictive performance
  Discrimination
   AUC/c statistic67
   Others1
   No33
  Calibration
  Calibration plot45
  Hosmer–Lemeshow test3
  No55
 Model validation
  Internal30
  External21
  No54

aMedian (min, max). bInitiation of chemotherapy (n = 10), metastasis (n = 3), and randomization (n = 2). cCART, Cox Lasso, discrimination analysis, Weibull model, neural network, and logistic model. AUC: area under curve.