FLT4 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: Several studies have reported that the VEGF-C/VEGFR-3 axis is associated with lymph node metastasis and that its expression is a prognostic factor for various cancers of the esophagus (17,18), stomach (19), colorectum (20), lung (21), cervix (22,23), prostate (24) and head and neck (25).