PDPN and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: As another important lymphangiogenetic factor, the average histoscore of podoplanin distribution was 7.34 ± 0.87 in all ESCC samples in present study, and their histoscores were also higher (10.08 ± 1.28) in NF-κB-high patients and lower (5.49 ± 1.05) in NF-κB-low patients (p = 0.008).