Table 2

Meta-analysis of the association between PLR and OS, DFS of BC with NACT

	Factors	No of studies	No of patients	Effects model	HR (95% CI)	P value	Heterogeneity
	Factors	No of studies	No of patients	Effects model	HR (95% CI)	P value	I²	P_H
OS	Overall	5	912	Fixed	1.898 (1.394 to 2.586)	<0.001	7.40%	0.365
	Ethnicity
	Caucasian	3	383	Fixed	1.845 (1.258 to 2.706)	0.002	0.00%	0.378
	Asian	2	529	Fixed	2.002 (1.187 to 3.377)	0.009	56.70%	0.128
	Method
	Previous study	2	281	Fixed	1.579 (0.973 to 2.564)	0.065	0.00%	0.345
	ROC	3	631	Fixed	2.153 (1.442 to 3.216)	<0.001	19.80%	0.288
	Subtype
	All	3	735	Fixed	1.922 (1.306 to 2.828)	0.001	15.30%	0.307
	IBC	2	177	Fixed	1.857 (1.110 to 3.109)	<0.018	48.60%	0.163
DFS	Overall	7	1887	Fixed	1.972 (1.557 to 2.499)	<0.001	0.00%	0.460
	Ethnicity
	Caucasian	3	383	Fixed	2.001 (1.415 to 2.831)	<0.001	0.00%	0.568
	Asian	4	1504	Fixed	1.948 (1.409 to 2.692)	<0.001	33.90%	0.209
	Method
	Previous study	3	458	Fixed	1.990 (1.374 to 2.884)	<0.001	0.00%	0.513
	ROC	3	449	Fixed	2.544 (1.614 to 4.010)	<0.001	1.50%	0.362
	Subtype
	All	4	730	Fixed	2.260 (1.576 to 3.240)	<0.001	0.00%	0.407
	IBC	2	177	Fixed	2.086 (1.295 to 3.361)	0.003	6.50%	0.301
	Luminal B	1	980	Fixed	1.576 (1.039 to 2.390)	0.032	—	—

BC, breast cancer; DFS, disease-free survival; IBC, inflammatory breast cancer; NACT, neoadjuvant chemotherapy; OS, overall survival; P_h, p values of Q test for heterogeneity test; PLR, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio; ROC, receiver operating characteristic curve.