Older studies can underestimate prognosis of glioblastoma biomarker in meta-analyses: a meta-epidemiological study for study-level effect in the current literature

摘要

There are many potential biomarkers in glioblastoma (GBM), and meta-analyses represent the highest level of evidence when inferring their prognostic significance. It is possible however, that inherent design properties of the studies included in these meta-analyses may affect the pooled hazard ratio (HR) of the meta-analyses. This meta-epidemiological study aims to investigate the potential bias of three study-level properties in meta-analyses of GBM biomarkers currently published in the literature.