Table 1

Articles excluded from the meta-analysis

Author	Year	Reasons for exclusion	Histology: no of patients	EGFR overexpression >(%)	EGFR effect on survival
EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; HR, hazard ratio; Ad, adenocarcinoma; Sq, squamous cell carcinoma; La, large cell carcinoma; Mis, miscellaneous; ND, no data; S, significant; NS, not significant; CFS, cancer free survival.
Dazzi et al¹²	1989	No statistical data for extracting HR	Ad: 31	49	NS
			Sq: 97
			La: 7
			Mis: 17
Rusch et al²²	1993	Updated by Rusch et al³⁴	Sq: 19	45	NS
		Updated by Rusch et al³⁴	Non-sq: 25
Volm et al²³	1993	Updated by Volm et al³⁷	Total: 121	83	S
Giatromanolaki et al¹³	1996	No statistical data for extracting HR	Ad: 38	79	NS
		No statistical data for extracting HR	Sq: 69
Giatromanolaki et al¹⁴	1996	No statistical data for extracting HR	Ad: 38	79	NS
		No statistical data for extracting HR	Sq: 69
Pfeiffer et al²⁴	1996	Updated by Pfeiffer et al³⁶	Ad: 59	55	NS
			Sq: 102
			La: 25
Koukourakis et al¹⁵	1997	No statistical data for extracting HR	Ad: 38	ND	NS
		No statistical data for extracting HR	Sq: 69
Greatens et al¹⁶	1998	No statistical data for extracting HR	Ad: 51	65	NS
			Sq: 44
			La: 6
D’Amico et al¹⁷	2000	No statistical data for extracting HR	Ad: 208	52	NS
			Sq: 148
			La: 52
Cox et al²⁵	2001	Updated by Swinson et al⁴⁸	Ad: 50	56	NS
			Sq: 105
			La: 14
Volm et al¹⁸	2002	No statistical data for extracting HR	Ad: 59	ND	S
		No statistical data for extracting HR	Sq: 123
			La: 34
Kanematsu et al¹⁹	2003	No statistical data for extracting HR	Sq: 14	81	NS
		No statistical data for extracting HR	Non-sq: 22
Sasaki et al²⁷	2003	Serum protein measured	Ad: 51	34	NS
			Sq: 42
			La: 5
			Mis: 9
Brattstrom et al²⁰	2004	No statistical data for extracting HR	Ad: 25	30	NS
			Sq: 22
			La: 2
			Mis: 4
Gregore et al²⁸	2004	Serum protein measured	Ad: 29	ND	NS
			Non-ad: 17
Jacot et al²⁹	2004	Serum protein measured	Ad: 56	ND	NS
			Sq: 127
			La: 38
Niemiec et al³⁰	2004	Over- and underexpression compared with medium expression	Sq: 78	60	S
Swinson et al²⁶	2004	Updated by Swinson et al⁴⁸	Ad: 49	ND	NS
		Updated by Swinson et al⁴⁸	Sq: 107
			La: 12
			Mis: 4
			Ad: 56
Onn et al²¹	2004	No statistical data for extracting HR	Sq: 40	50	NS
		No statistical data for extracting HR	Mis: 15