SAA1 and neoplasm: No significant difference in age, gender and tumor location was found between the two groups; however, patients with poor histological differentiation (P < 0.001), larger tumor size (P < 0.001), higher T classification (P < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001), distant metastasis (P < 0.001) and higher clinical stage (P < 0.001) were more frequently observed in the elevated SAA group (SAA ≥ 8.0 mg/L) than in the non-elevated SAA group (SAA < 8.0 mg/L).