Table 1 Detailed reporting of inclusion/exclusion criteria

Criteria for Inclusion

Study group (P): individuals identified with pancreatic cancer

Intervention (I): assessment of exosome biomarkers’ diagnostic precision for pancreatic cancer

Control (C): individuals in good health without pancreatic cancer

Outcome indicators (O): total count of true positives (TP), false positives (FP), false negatives (FN), and true negatives (TN) as shown in a 2 × 2 league table or deducible through study computations

Study category (S): observational research focusing on the precision of exosome biomarkers in diagnosing pancreatic cancer(More credibility; avoidance of confounding factors; applicability and generalisability)

Criteria for Exclusion

Studies involving animals(Clinical applicability issues)

Insufficient data for creating a 2 × 2 league table(Insufficient data for analysis)

Case studies, meta-analyses, reviews, or commentaries(Case studies: sample sizes too small; meta-analyses, reviews, commentaries: duplication of inclusion, lack of independence, can affect accuracy, potential for bias)

Review articles lacking peer review, book chapters, and frequent citations(Review articles lacking peer review: cannot be quality assured, lacks credibility; book chapters: uncertainty in study design and methodology, data may be incomplete, lack of peer review; frequently citations: duplication of inclusion, lack of independence, affects accuracy, possible bias)