STAT3 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: Notably, STAT3-, p-STAT3- and HIF-1α-positive expression and VM formation in tissues from patients with lymph node metastasis were significantly higher than those from patients without lymph node metastasis, respectively (92.7 vs. 57.9, 75.6 vs. 21.1, 78.0 vs. 31.6 and 41.5 vs. 10.5%; P<0.05).