Guo, Qiang
Li, Junyun
Wei, Zhe
Xu, Jingjing
Duan, Shaojun
Li, Jianfeng
Liu, Yaxi
Article History
Received: 11 March 2025
Accepted: 13 May 2025
First Online: 1 July 2025
Declarations
:
: This retrospective study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Jincheng People’s Hospital (JCPH) (Approval No. 20250314003). Given the retrospective nature of the research, which utilized anonymized clinical data from the SEER database and JCPH, the IRB granted a waiver for the requirement of obtaining informed consents from participants. This decision was based on the following considerations: (1) the study involved no more than minimal risk to participants, (2) the waiver would not adversely affect the rights and welfare of the participants, (3) the research could not practicably be carried out without the waiver, and (4) the study did not involve any procedures for which written consent is normally required outside of the research context. All data were de-identified to ensure patient confidentiality and privacy.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare no competing interests.