MMP9 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: Univariate analysis, executed according to a Cox proportional hazards model, found that both two proteins expression (Hazard ratio (HR) = 1.760), VEGF-C expression (HR = 2.074), MMP-9 expression (HR = 1.854), depth of invasion (HR = 1.583), lymphatic invasion (HR = 2.569), venous invasion (HR = 2.404), lymph node metastasis (HR = 2.821), and worse TNM stage (HR = 3.449) were factors related to worse outcome of Kazakh ESCCs (all P < 0.05).