For gastric cancer, previous studies have indicated that the VEGF-C-VEGFR-3 signaling pathway plays a major role in lymphangiogenesis through both autocrine and paracrine mechanisms (43,44), and quantitative analysis of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 may be useful in predicting metastasis to regional lymph nodes (30,45,46). The gene discussed is VEGFC; the disease is gastric cancer.