DEK and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: A high expression of plasma DEK was significantly associated with the clinical and pathological characteristics of tumor progression, metastasis, or advanced stage of GC, manifested in the parameters: gross type, tumor size, histological type, depth of invasion, serosal invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, pathological stage, liver metastasis, peritoneal seeding, vascular invasion, lymphatic invasion, and perineural invasion (Table 3).