Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Jun 20, 2023; 13(3): 153-165
Published online Jun 20, 2023. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v13.i3.153
Microvessel density in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Konstantinos Perivoliotis, Ioannis Baloyiannis, Athina A Samara, Prodromos Koutoukoglou, Panagiotis Ntellas, Katerina Dadouli, Maria Ioannou, Konstantinos Tepetes
Konstantinos Perivoliotis, Ioannis Baloyiannis, Athina A Samara, Konstantinos Tepetes, Department of Surgery, University Hospital of Larissa, Larissa 41110, Greece
Prodromos Koutoukoglou, Katerina Dadouli, Research Methodology in Biomedicine, Biostatistics and Clinical Bioinformatics, University of Thessaly, 41110 41110, Greece
Panagiotis Ntellas, Maria Ioannou, Department of Pathology, University Hospital of Larissa, Larissa 41110, Greece
Author contributions: Perivoliotis K, Ntellas P, Baloyiannis I contributed to study conception and design; Dadouli K, Koutoukoglou P contributed to acquisition of data; Perivoliotis K, Ntellas P, Samara A contributed to analysis and interpretation of data; Perivoliotis K, Ntellas P contributed to drafting of manuscript; Ioannou M, Tepetes K contributed to critical revision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Athina A Samara, MD, Surgeon, Department of Surgery, University Hospital of Larissa, Mezourlo Hill, Larissa 41110, Greece. at.samara93@gmail.com
Received: January 14, 2023
Peer-review started: January 14, 2023
First decision: April 13, 2023
Revised: April 30, 2023
Accepted: May 16, 2023
Article in press: May 16, 2023
Published online: June 20, 2023
Processing time: 157 Days and 2.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Several clinical and histopathologic factors have been investigated as prognostic indicators of survival in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs).

Research motivation

Microvessel density (MVD) has been extensively applied as a direct method of tumour vascularity assessment.

Research objectives

This meta-analysis attempted to estimate the pooled effect of tumoral vascularity based on MVD assessment on the survival of patients with GISTs.

Research methods

The present meta-analysis adhered to the Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.

Research results

Low vascularized tumours were associated with improved pooled disease-free survival. GISTs with lower MVD values displayed a reduced risk of metastases.

Research conclusions

MVD is significantly associated with the survival outcomes of GIST patients.

Research perspectives

Further prospective randomized controlled trials are required to delineate the exact correlation between MVD and prognosis outcomes in GIST patients.