Interestingly, our results demonstrated that increased ERK5 steady-state levels and NF-κB activation were significantly correlated with increased depth of invasion (P<0.05) and with the presence of lymph node metastasis (P<0.05) and distant metastasis (P<0.01), and no significant association was seen for gender, age at presentation or with tumour location (Table 1). This evidence concerns the gene MAPK7 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.