MTDH and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: After that, we found that obvious associations emerged between the high expression of AEG-1 and the clinical stage (OR = 3.66, 95%CI: 2.70–4.96, I2 = 0%) and lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.55, 95%CI: 1.99–3.27, I2=0%), indicating that Yao’s study might contribute to the high heterogeneity in the clinical stage and lymph node metastasis subgroups.