Prognostic and clinicopathological significance of glypican-3 overexpression in hepatocellular carcinoma: A meta-analysis

Table 1 Basic characteristics of the studies in the meta-analysis

Ref.	Year	Sample sizen(M/F)	Mean age (yr)	Treatment	Tumor vascular invasion (yes/no)	Tumor stage (I-II/III-IV)	Tumor differentiation (well/moderate-to-poor)	Study quality (points)	GPC3 detection method	Survival analysis	Hazard ratio	Counting method in immunohistochemistry	Cut-off level of “high” GPC3	Number of patients with “high” GPC3 (n)
Shirakawa et al[27]	2009	107 (85/22)	NR	S	47/60	NR	12/95	7/9	IHC	OS	Reported in text	Percentage of positive cells	> 10%	87
Yorita et al[29]	2010	194 (142/52)	NR	S	108/86	82/112	56/138	7/9	IHC	OS/DFS	Reported in text	Positive area score + Sp-Cm	≥ 2-point score	96
Ning et al[26]	2012	61 (55/6)	48	S	NR	45/16	NR	6/9	IHC	OS	Reported in text	Positive area score × staining intensity score	> ‘‘+” (2-point score)	32
Yu et al[30]	2012	100 (90/10)	51	S	23/77	NR	NR	6/9	IHC	DFS	Reported in text	NR	NR	NR
Wang et al[28]	2012	31 (29/2)	49	LT	16/15	12/19	6/25	6/9	IHC	DFS	Estimated	Percentage of positive cells	> 10%	21

M: Male; F: Female; NR: Not reported; S: Surgical resection; LT: Liver transplantation; IHC: Immunohistochemistry; OS: Overall survival; DFS: Disease-free survival.

Table 2 Meta-analysis of hepatitis B virus/hepatitis C virus infection and tumor size in hepatocellular carcinoma

Ref.	Clinicopathological feature	Total	Events (GPC3-positive)	OR	95%CI	P value for OR	P value for heterogeneity
Shirakawa et al[27]	HBV (+/-)	29/78	26/61	1.47	0.53-4.05	0.46	0.10
Yorita et al[29]		60/134	38/59
Ning et al[26]		53/8	26/6
Shirakawa et al[27]	HCV (+/-)	62/45	50/37	0.69	0.42-1.03	0.14	0.54
Yorita et al[29]		83/111	36/61
Yorita et al[29]	Tumor size (≥ 5/< 5)	78/116	41/56	1.15	0.72-1.86	0.56	0.95
Ning et al[26]		37/24	20/12
Yu et al[30]		15/16	10/11

HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HCV: Hepatitis C virus.