| Trial characteristic | Coefficient | SE | p Value |
| Trial vs observational study | 0.10 | 0.13 | 0.430 |
| Flow vs image cytometry | 0.25 | 0.22 | 0.253 |
| Use of DNA index | 0.03 | 0.10 | 0.739 |
| Ethnicity (white Caucasian, Asian, Indian) | 0.06 | 0.12 | 0.625 |
| Single stage vs multiple stage analysis | 0.22 | 0.17 | 0.195 |
| Site of disease (colorectal, colon, rectum) | 0.08 | 0.08 | 0.306 |
| Study size (<100, 100–400, >400 patients) | −0.06 | 0.12 | 0.628 |
| Length of follow-up | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.804 |
| Method of data extraction* | –0.08 | 0.07 | 0.254 |
| Year of publication | 0.00 | 0.01 | 0.960 |
*Direct numerical estimation, indirect numerical estimation, data extraction from a graph.