Practical methods for incorporating summary time-to-event data into meta-analysis

By J. Tierney, L. Stewart, D. Ghersi, S. Burdett, M. Sydes. Trials, 2007

5,727 citations recorded by the source corpus.

BackgroundIn systematic reviews and meta-analyses, time-to-event outcomes are most appropriately analysed using hazard ratios (HRs). In the absence of individual patient data (IPD), methods are available to obtain HRs and/or associated statistics by carefully manipulating published or other summary data. Awareness and adoption of these methods is somewhat limited, perhaps because they are published in the statistical literature using statistical notation.MethodsThis paper aims to 'translate' the methods for estimating a HR and associated statistics from published time-to-event-analyses into less statistical and more practical guidance and provide a corresponding, easy-to-use calculations spreadsheet, to facilitate the computational aspects.ResultsA wider audience should be able to understand published time-to-event data in individual trial reports and use it more appropriately in meta-analysis. When faced with particular circumstances, readers can refer to the relevant sections of the paper. The spreadsheet can be used to assist them in carrying out the calculations.ConclusionThe methods cannot circumvent the potential biases associated with relying on published data for systematic reviews and meta-analysis. However, this practical guide should improve the quality of the analysis and subsequent interpretation of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that include time-to-event outcomes.

Subfields: Statistics and Probability, Surgery

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8c7c798ec1da89e3af645df7061a7501c2f996c6

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Citations in the corpus

Meta-analysis: Excess Mortality After Hip Fracture Among Older Women and Men (2010, background): “An additional source of variability occurs in time-to-event (survival) analyses when the mortality risk is not constant over time and follow-up varies across the cohorts (17, 18).”
The prognostic influence of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes in cancer: a systematic review with meta-analysis (2011, methodology): “Some studies were entirely carried out in a subgroup of patients, for instance only in advanced stage patients.”
A guide to systematic review and meta-analysis of prognostic factor studies (2019, background): “and Tierney et al.(27) describe how to obtain unadjusted hazard ratio estimates (and their variances) when they are not reported directly.”
Conducting quantitative synthesis when comparing medical interventions: AHRQ and the Effective Health Care Program. (2011, background): “Investigators can also calculate HR and its variance if observed and expected events can be extracted [31,32], although this is often quite difficult [33].”
Diet quality as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index, the Alternate Healthy Eating Index, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension score, and health outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. (2015, background): “Therefore, combining HR, RR, and odds ratio reported at different stages of maturity (with variable follow-up), might result in an estimate that is both unreliable and difficult to interpret.(72) The vast majority of meta-analyses in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews often underestimate ex”
Lipiodol transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma: A systematic review of efficacy and safety data (2016, methodology): “were used to guide in the collection and calculation of the necessary information.((22)) Because all the endpoints in this study are dichotomous in nature, the methods described are for a general parameter with the realization that it can be applied to all the endpoints in this study.”