Response to Comment on "Prognostic Role of Claudin-1 Immunohistochemistry in Malignant Solid Tumors: A Meta-Analysis".

This study aimed to elucidate the prognostic roles of claudin-1 immunohistochemistry in various malignant tumors through a meta-analysis. Data from all included studies were extracted by two independent authors (J.S.P. and N.Y.K.). Any disagreements for extracting data were resolved by consensus. In the present study, to review more articles, we used the narrow exclusion criteria. Therefore, discordance for the literature collection did not occur. We assessed the risk of bias for all included studies according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The detailed information was shown in Table 1. All data for survivals were a 5-year survival rate. If the extractable data only included the survival curve, survival rates at 5-year were obtained from the survival curve.

Table 1.

The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for the quality assessment of eligible studies

Study	Selection				Comparability	Outcome			Score
	Representativeness of the exposed cohort	Selection of the non-exposed cohort	Ascertainment of exposure	Demonstration that outcome of interest was not present at start of study	Comparability of cohorts on the basis of the design or analysis	Assessment of outcome	Was follow-up long enough for outcomes to occur	Adequacy of follow-up of cohorts
Ma et al. (2014) [1]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Morohashi et al. (2007) [2]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Matsuoka et al. (2011) [3]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Resnick et al. (2005) [4]	NA	NA	NA	*	–	*	*	*	4
Shibutani et al. (2013) [5]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Yoshida et al. (2011) [6]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Miyamoto et al. (2008) [7]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Xiong et al. (2011) [8]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Li et al. (2015) [9]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Sappayatosok and Phattarataratip (2015) [10]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Fritzsche et al. (2008) [11]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Shin et al. (2011) [12]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Bouchagier et al. (2014) [13]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Higashi et al. (2007) [14]	NA	NA	NA	*	-	*	*	*	4
Chae et al. (2014) [15]	NA	NA	NA	*	-	*	*	*	4
Chao et al. (2009) [16]	NA	NA	NA	*	-	*	*	*	4
Merikallio et al. (2011) [17]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Zhang et al. (2013) [18]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Huang et al. (2014) [19]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Jung et al. (2011) [20]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Tzelepi et al. (2008) [21]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5
Hoellen et al. (2017) [22]	NA	NA	NA	*	*	*	*	*	5

NA, not available; *, criteria satisfied; –, criteria not satisfied.