Furthermore, we found that TNM stage (I–II vs III–IV, P = 0.001), pT status (T1‐2 vs T3‐4, P = 0.001), pN status (N0 vs N+, P = 0.022), and HMGB1 staining (− vs +, P = 0.023) were the risk factors for death in NSCLC patients (Table. 1), wherein that TNM stage (P = 0.0014), pT status (P = 0.005) and pN status (P = 0.001) were the independent risk factors for death in NSCLC patients by using Cox multivariate regression analysis (Table 2). The gene discussed is HMGB1; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.