Second outcome: OS
Seven articles about SUVmax measurement of tumor tissue
were included in the study.11, 13, 14, 18, 19, 24, 25For moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 36.2%, P = 0.151),
the fixed-effects model was applied when pooling HR. The combined HR was
2.582 (95% CI 1.936-3.443, P <0.001), which meant patients
with high SUVmax had a shorter survival time than those
with low SUVmax (Figure 3A) . Begg’s funnel plot
and Egger’s test indicated no publication bias (P = 0.113), and
sensitivity analysis showed that the analysis was relatively stable(Figure 3B-C) .
Two articles about primary tumor SUVmean were included
in the study.14, 20 For no heterogeneity
(I2 = 0.0%, P = 0.893), the fixed-effects model was
applied when pooling HR. The synthesized results showed that patients
with high SUVmean had a shorter survival time than those
with low SUVmean, but there was no statistical
significance (HR = 1.523, 95% CI = 0.764–3.038, P = 0.232)(Figure S4A) . Because of the limited data, publication bias and
sensitivity analysis were not performed.
Two articles about TLG measurement of tumor tissue were included in the
study.14, 20 In the absence of heterogeneity
(I2 = 0.0%, P = 0.672), the fixed-effects model was
applied when pooling HR. The synthesized results showed that patients
with high TLG had a shorter survival time than those with low TLG,
but the result had no statistical significance (HR = 1.371, 95% CI =
0.681-2.759, P = 0.377) (Figure S4B) . Because of the limited
data, publication bias and sensitivity analysis were not performed.
Two articles about nodal SUVmax were included in the
study.19, 22 For no heterogeneity
(I2 = 54.1%, P = 0.140), the fixed-effects model was
applied when pooling HR. The synthesized results showed that patients
with high nodal SUVmax had a shorter survival time than
those with low nodal SUVmax (HR = 2.095, 95% CI =
2.027-2.166, P <0.001) (Figure S4C) . Because of the
limited data, publication bias and sensitivity analysis were not
performed.