In turn, patients who displayed moderate or intense positivity for CEA antibody were more frequently associated with localization in the rectum (p = 0.03), advanced stages (stage IV; p = 0.007), presence of lymph node metastases (p = 0.01), liver metastases (p = 0.003) and BRAF mutations (p = 0.008). Here, BRAF is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.