About the Authors

Sujian Xia

Affiliation Division of Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, University of Jinan, Guangzhou City, Guangdong, China

Weidong Zhang

Affiliation Novartis Pharmaceuticals Oncology, Beijing, China

Liting Huang

* Email: ting.hwang30@gmail.com

Affiliation Zhuhai People’s Hospital, Zhuhai City, Guangdong, China

Hong Jiang

Affiliation Division of Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, University of Jinan, Guangzhou City, Guangdong, China

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests. Weidong Zhang is employed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Oncology. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors. The other authors have no competing interest.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LH SX WZ. Performed the experiments: SX WZ LH HJ. Analyzed the data: SX LH HJ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LH HJ. Wrote the manuscript: SX LH WZ. Literature review: LH HJ.