merge elements in forestplot format a single element - r

Question

I am creating a forestplot using the forestplot package in R, and am having trouble with a few things.
Questions:
Is it possible to merge two adjacent text elements
Is it possible to modify either a single text element font, or the font of an entire row
My Code:
library(forestplot)
# creating text
text <- rbind(c('', 'N (%)', 'SRT', 'ART', 'HR [95% CI]'),
c('', '', '5 year survival %', '5 year survival %', ''),
c('Seminal Vesicle Involvement', '', '', '', ''),
c(' Yes', '10 (20%)', '94', '12', '0.73 [0.36, 1.50]'),
c(' No', '40 (80%)', '96', '10', '1.78 [0.73, 4.35]'),
c('Gender', '', '', '', ''),
c(' Male', '13 (22.5%)', '84', '22', '0.06 [-0.2, 0.86]'),
c(' Female', '37 (77.5%)', '93', '13', '1.89 [0.90, 6.67]'))
# creating the plot
forestplot(text,
mean = c(NA, NA, NA, 0.73, 1.78, NA, 0.06, 1.89),
lower = c(NA, NA, NA, 0.36, 0.73, NA, -0.2, 0.90),
upper = c(NA, NA, NA, 1.50, 4.35, NA, 0.86, 6.67),
is.summary=c(T, T, T, F, F, T, F, F),
lineheight = unit(0.9, "cm"),
graph.pos = 5,
graphwidth = unit(4, 'cm'),
xticks = c(-1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4),
ci.vertices = T,
txt_gp = fpTxtGp(ticks = gpar(cex = 1),
xlab = gpar(cex = 1),
label = gpar(cex = 0.8),
summary = gpar(cex = 0.8)),
col=fpColors(box="black",
line="darkgrey",
summary="black",
zero='grey20',
axes='grey20'),
hrzl_lines = list("2" = gpar(lwd=1, col = "#000044")))
Output:
Desired:
I would like the two 5 year survival % text bits to be combined into 1 (and centered between the two headings above), and either just those elements or the whole row to be italic font.
I have tried using summary=list(gpar(...)) for the txt_gp option, but that only seems to be able to modify the whole column, and I have found nothing on merging cells at all.

Answer 1

If you make the colgap much smaller in forestplot than usual, you can split the text that is currently duplicated in row 2 in columns 3 and 4 into two parts:
> text[2, 4] <- 'survival % '
> text[2, 3] <- '5 year '
>
> forestplot(text,
+ mean = c(NA, NA, NA, 0.73, 1.78, NA, 0.06, 1.89),
+ lower = c(NA, NA, NA, 0.36, 0.73, NA, -0.2, 0.90),
+ upper = c(NA, NA, NA, 1.50, 4.35, NA, 0.86, 6.67),
+ is.summary=c(T, T, T, F, F, T, F, F),
+ lineheight = unit(0.9, "cm"),
+ graph.pos = 5,
+ graphwidth = unit(4, 'cm'),
+ xticks = c(-1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4),
+ ci.vertices = T,
# add line---------
colgap=unit(.0011,"npc"),
#
+ txt_gp = fpTxtGp(ticks = gpar(cex = 1),
+ xlab = gpar(cex = 1),
+ label = gpar(cex = 0.8),
+ summary = gpar(cex = 0.8)),
+ col=fpColors(box="black",
+ line="darkgrey",
+ summary="black",
+ zero='grey20',
+ axes='grey20'),
+ hrzl_lines = list("2" = gpar(lwd=1, col = "#000044")))