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Table 4 Eligibility criteria and screening matrix
| Eligibility criteria | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Patients | Male or female patients with histologically or cytologicallyconfirmed squamous NSCLC | ||
| Study participants must have not received chemotherapy treatment prior to first-line chemotherapy for NSCLC at the time of randomization in the study | |||
| Interventions | The study assesses a chemotherapy treatment in each of the study arms | ||
| No limits are placed on the type of chemotherapy used | |||
| Outcomes | One or more of the following outcomes must be quantitatively reported in the publication: overall survival, progression-free survival, toxicity, or quality of life | ||
| At least one of the required outcome variables must be reported separately for patients with advanced or metastatic (stage III/IV) NSCLC that is of squamous histology | |||
| Study design | RCTs | ||
| Time frame | 1995 to present | ||
| Ineligibility criteria | |||
| Interventions | Not first-line treatment with first-line defined as patients with no prior exposure to chemotherapy | ||
| Radiation therapy in the absence of concurrent chemotherapy in any treatment group | |||
| Study design | Review articles, news, editorials, commentaries | ||
| Time frame | Publication date prior to 1995 | ||
| Matrix for patients with "squamous histology" | |||
| Squamous inclusion obvious in abstract? | Squamous results obvious in abstract? | Inclusion | Comments |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | No | Yes/No | Need full text to determine the inclusion |
| No | No | Yes/No | Need full text to determine the inclusion |
| Only non-squamous inclusion obvious in abstract? | Squamous results obvious in abstract? | Inclusion | Comments |
| Yes | Yes | Not possible case | |
| No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | No | No | |
| No | No | Yes/No | Need full text to determine the inclusion |
| Abstract mentions just NSCLC as inclusion? | Squamous results obvious in abstract? | Inclusion | Comments |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| No | Yes | Yes/No | This may be multisite cancer study, need full text to determine the inclusion |
| Yes | No | Yes/No | Need full text to determine the inclusion |
| No | No | Noise in the search | Need full text to determine the inclusion |
| Multiple cancers | If mentions lung cancer | Yes/No | Need full text to determine the inclusion |
| If does not mention any specific tumor types | Yes/No | Need full text to determine the inclusion | |
| If only mentions breast cancer or other types and does not mention lung cancer | Noise in the search | ||
| Matrix for "not first-line treatment" | |||
| Condition | Line of treatment to be considered | Inclusion | Comments |
| Naïve NSCLC patients | 1st | Yes | |
| First- or front-line treatment | 1st | Yes | |
| Untreated NSCLC patients | 1st | Yes | |
| Metastatic chemo-naïve NSCLC patients | 1st | Yes | |
| Chemo-naïve NSCLC patients | 1st | Yes | |
| Second-line treatment | 2nd | No | |
| (Rx)-resistant NSCLC patients | 2nd | No | |
| Recurrent or progressive disease | 2nd | No | |
| (Rx)-responder/non-responder patients | 2nd | No | |
| If no clear information on line of treatment | NA | Yes/No | Need full text to determine the inclusion |
