Key words	Ovid embase	Ovid medline	Pubmed	Cochrane
Confocal microscopy	11769	9221	57839	0
Confocal laser scanning microscopy	2010	1436	57839	0
Reflectance confocal microscopy	102	146	607	0
Confocal microscopy AND skin cancer	34	50	461	0
Confocal microscopy AND histology	500	399	32157	0
Confocal microscopy AND skin cancer AND histology	3	4	358	0

Table1 The number of hits obtained from each database when searching for articles using key words

Ser No	Study Author	Study Type	Evidence Level	Type Of Technique Used	Number Of Skin Cancer Lesions	Total Number Of Lesions*	Reference Standard	Blinding	Number Of Patients	Patient Characteristics
1	Nori S et al., 200421	Retrospective	Ib	In vivo CM	83	137	Histology	yes	145	Lesions 98 male specimens, 54 female specimen
2	Horn M et al., 200626	Retrospective	II	Ex vivo CM	20	40	Histology	yes	20	Not described
3	Gerger A et al., 200527	Prospective	II	In vivo CM	27	57	Histology	yes	57	Gender and age not mentioned. Location of lesions given as 15 on back, 6 on legs, 4 on head and 1 on acral skin
4	Langley R et al., 200728	Prospective	II	In vivo CM	37	125	Histology	no	125	Age range 16-84 yrs, mean age 44.2, no gender statistics
5	Guitera P et al.,201029	Retrospective	II	In vivo CM	29	73	Histology	yes	73	Not described for test set
6	Curchin C et al.,201132	Retrospective	Ib	In vivo CM	13 MM	50	Histology	yes	42	Not described
6	Curchin C et al.,201132	Retrospective	Ib	In vivo CM	9 BCC	50	Histology	yes	42	Not described
7	Longo C et al.,201330	Retrospective	II	In vivo CM	32 MM	140	Histology	yes	140	64 male,76 female
					28 BCC
					6 SCC
8	Guitera P et al.,201231	Retrospective	II	In vivo CM	105 MM	356	Histology	yes	Not Available	Total 663 patients, 309 females and 354 males. Median age 53 yrs. But patient characteristics not described separately for test set
8	Guitera P et al.,201231	Retrospective	II	In vivo CM	52 BCC	356	Histology	yes	Not Available

Table 2Tabulated form of variables collected from the included studies

Ser No	Studies	Type of Skin cancer	Average sensitivity (%)	Average Specificity (%)	Average PPV (Positive Predictive Value %)	Average NPV (Negative Predictive Value %)
1	Nori S et al., 200421	BCC	82.9	95.7	97.18	78.79
2	Horn M et al., 200626	SCC	95	96.25	96.20	95.06
3	Gerger A et al., 200527	Melanoma	88.15	97.60	96	90.63
4	Langley R et al.,200728	Melanoma	97.3	83	70.59	98.65
5	Guitera P et al.,201029	Melanoma	93	82	77.14	94.74
6	Curchin C et al.32	Melanoma	92.3	75	52.17	96.55
6	Curchin C et al.32	BCC	66.7	100	100	93.18
7	Longo C et al.,201330	Melanoma	96.5	94.1	83.78	99.03
		BCC	100	99.1	96.55	100
		SCC	78.12	87	21.62	98.89
8	Guitera P et al.,201231	Melanoma	87.6	70.8	55.76	93.19
8	Guitera P et al.,201231	BCC	100	88.5	59.77	100

Table 3Table showing sensitivities, specificities, PPV and NPV of the included studies

Table4 Table showing pooled sensitivities, specificities, LR and DOR of the included studies