In addition to the statistically significant clinical variables (Table 2), tumour epithelial cell expression of NF-κB p105 (P=0.02), vimentin (P=0.001) and E-cadherin (P=0.03), and stromal cell expression of NF-κB p105 (P=0.001) and Par6 (P=0.0001) were prognostic indicators for DSS in univariate analyses (Table 3; Figures 3 and 4). Here, VIM is linked to neoplasm.