In our univariate analysis on all lung adenocarcinoma patients, six clinicopathological characteristics were considered to be adverse prognostic factors for PFS: advanced T factor and N factor (>T2; >N0; all P < 0.001); clinical stage III (HR = 10.661 [95% CI 5.394–21.071], P < 0.0001); high VEGFC expression (HR = 0.370 [95% CI 0.182–0.375], P = 0.004); high PD‐L1 expression (HR = 1.979 [95% CI 1.030–3.800], P = 0.037), and VEGFC/PD‐L1 co‐expression (HR = 2.749 [95% CI 1.410–5.361], P = 0.002). Here, VEGFC is linked to lung adenocarcinoma.