Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Athens, Greece.
Curr Drug Targets. 2011 Dec;12(13):1989-97. doi: 10.2174/138945011798184191.
Meta-analysis is a quantitative approach for systematically combining the results of previous studies in order to arrive at conclusions about the body of research. It answers a specific research question, includes an explicit methodology section, employs strategies to minimize bias, yields objective findings and enables evidence-based decisions. In this review, we examine meta-analysis taking examples from the field of cancer chemoprevention, an innovative area of cancer research that focuses on the prevention of cancer through pharmacological, biologic, and nutritional interventions. In particular, we consider the practical steps involved in the conduct of a meta-analysis, illustrate the statistical techniques for the calculation of summary estimates, present the available methodology for detecting and minimizing bias and, finally, we discuss unresolved issues and future applications.
荟萃分析是一种定量方法，用于系统地合并以前研究的结果，以便得出关于研究总体的结论。它回答了一个具体的研究问题，包括一个明确的方法学部分，采用策略来最小化偏差，产生客观的结果，并能够做出基于证据的决策。在这篇综述中，我们以癌症化学预防领域的例子来考察荟萃分析，这是癌症研究的一个创新领域，专注于通过药理学、生物学和营养干预来预防癌症。特别是，我们考虑了进行荟萃分析所涉及的实际步骤，说明了计算汇总估计的统计技术，介绍了用于检测和最小化偏差的现有方法，并最后讨论了未解决的问题和未来的应用。
