VEGFA and metastatic neoplasm: Increased expression levels of EMT-related molecules, such as Slug, Zeb2, MMP-3, MMP-1, TGFBR1, BMP2, and NRP1; metastasis-related cytokines, such as IL-6, IL-8, Cox2, IL-1β, and CXCR7; and other metastasis-related genes, such as VEGFA, EGF, CD74, and CD24, were observed in the primary and metastatic tumors (Fig. 2e).