Our results indicated that CD117 expression (P = 0.002), distant metastasis (P = 0.023) and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.045) had independent prognostic impacts in the Cox model (Table 3), whereas histological grade (P = 0.251) and T stage (P = 0.301) did not. Here, KIT is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.