Moreover, the decreased amount of CTGF protein was associated with T1b (p = 0.02), T2a (p = 0.000002) and T3 (p = 0.0007) tumor size and with all grades of lymph node metastasis (N0: p = 0.000004; N1: p = 0.01; N2: p = 0.03; Supplementary table 2). This evidence concerns the gene CCN2 and neoplasm.