Table 1

Meta-analysis of the association between PLR and pCR of BC with NACT

Factors	No of studies	No of patients	Effects model	OR (95% CI)	P value	Heterogeneity
Factors	No of studies	No of patients	Effects model	OR (95% CI)	P value	I²	P_H
Overall	19	4301	Random	0.77 (0.67 to 0.88)	<0.001	75.80%	<0.001
Ethnicity
Caucasian	11	2350	Random	0.77 (0.68 to 0.88)	<0.001	61.60%	0.004
Asian	8	1951	Random	0.83 (0.58 to 1.17)	0.288	85.00%	<0.001
Method
Previous study	6	984	Fixed	0.86 (0.78 to 0.94)	0.001	39.30%	0.144
ROC	12	2337	Random	0.72 (0.57 to 0.92)	0.008	81.10%	<0.001
Subtype
All	14	2964	Random	0.76 (0.64 to 0.89)	0.001	74.00%	<0.001
IBC	2	177	Fixed	0.83 (0.70 to 0.97)	0.021	0.00%	0.368
TNBC	2	180	Random	0.91 (0.26 to 3.21)	0.885	94.70%	<0.001
Luminal B	1	980	Fixed	0.76 (0.61 to 0.94)	0.013	—	—
Cut-off
<150	9	2041	Random	0.80 (0.59 to 1.10)	0.172	82.90%	<0.001
≥150	9	1280	Random	0.78 (0.67 to 0.91)	0.001	68.20%	0.001

BC, breast cancer; IBC, inflammatory breast cancer; NACT, neoadjuvant chemotherapy; pCR, pathological complete response; P_h, p values of Q test for heterogeneity test; PLR, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio; ROC, receiver operating characteristic curve; TNBC, triple negative breast cancer.