© Copyright 2020 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc. The limitations of meta-analysis are also discussed. Other procedures briefly explained include meta-regression analysis, pooled analysis, individual participant data meta-analysis, and network meta-analysis. Brief discussions are provided about important concepts relevant to meta-analysis, including heterogeneity, subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses, fixed effect and random effects meta-analyses, and the detection of publication bias. This article explains why meta-analysis may be necessary, how a systematic review is conducted to identify studies for meta-analysis, and how to interpret the various elements in a forest plot. The results of meta-analysis are presented in forest plots. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to comprehensively evaluate the prognostic value of nectin-4 in cancers. However, these studies failed to reach a consensus. Meta-analysis can be conducted for a variety of statistics, including means, mean differences, standardized mean differences, proportions, differences in proportions, relative risks, odds ratios, and others. BackgroundMany reports have described that abnormal nectin-4 expression may be used as a prognostic marker in many tumors. Meta-analysis is a way to statistically combine and summarize the results of different studies so as to obtain a pooled or summary estimate that may better represent what is true in the population. The results of research on a specific question differ across studies, some to a small extent and some to a large extent.

Comprehensive meta analysis for mac