PLK1 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: Furthermore, our results demonstrated that GC patients with PLK1 overexpression were significantly associated with unfavorable overall survival (HR =1.54, 95% CI: 1.30–1.83, P<0.001), lymph node metastasis (OR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.13–2.80, P=0.013) and advanced TNM stage (OR=1.48, 95% CI: 1.02-2.15, P=0.038).