Literature search and selection criteria
Embase and Pubmed (from inception to May 2020) were systematically
searched, using the appropriate terminology as described inTable S1 . Besides, the reference lists of the articles reviewed
as full texts were also searched manually. The inclusion criteria in the
meta-analysis were as follows: patients treated with CCRT for LACC; FDG
PET/CT scans performed before or during treatment; and relationship
between the parameters of FDG PET/CT and the prognosis of patients was
detected. Studies meeting the following criteria were excluded:
publication type other than original research articles (i.e., review
articles, conference abstracts, and editorial), patients treated with
surgery at any point in treatment, patients treated with chemotherapy or
radiotherapy alone, and patients lacking important information for
analysis (i.e., articles reporting hazard ratios [HRs], using Cox
proportional hazards modeling with parameters as a continuous variable).
Two authors conducted the searches and screening independently. Any
discrepancies were resolved by consensus with another reviewer.