HMOX1 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: In contrast, expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), another target gene of Nrf2 (69), was found to correlate with thyroid cancer aggressiveness (stage and risk of recurrence, plus a near-significant trend for extra-thyroidal invasion), but not with tumor size or lymph node metastasis (70).