The meta-analytic results showed that decreased expression level of MLKL was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage (OR = 1.81, 95% CI: 1.09–3.01, p = 0.021), more lymph node metastasis (OR = 3.83, 95% CI: 2.29–6.40, p < 0.001) and older age (OR = 1.93 95% CI: 1.28–2.93, p = 0.002). Here, MLKL is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.