We observed that RAN and TRIM29 expression level were closely correlated with lymph node (P = 0.000; P = 0.000) and distant metastasis (P = 0.002; P = 0.000), and clinical stage (P = 0.036; P = 0.041); SQSTM1 expression level was closely correlated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.002), but not correlated with distant metastasis (P = 0.073) and clinical stage (P = 0.733) in NPC patients. Here, SQSTM1 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.