Expression levels of NKX6.3 mRNA transcript were significantly lower in gastric cancers with higher T stage (P < 0.05), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05), and TNM stage (P < 0.05), when compared to gastric cancers with tumor stage T1, without lymph node metastasis (N0) or with TNM stage I (Fig. 1a–c and Table S1). Here, NKX6-3 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.