NGF and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: Elevated preoperative serum levels of CEA and CA19-9, higher tumor stage, presence of lymph node metastasis and venous invasion, advanced gastric cancer type, higher histologic grade, and NGF- and HO1-positivity were significantly associated with both shorter OS and RFS of gastric carcinoma patients by univariate analysis (Table 2).