Furthermore, gastric cancer samples with HGF and MET expression data across all patient characteristics were investigated from TCGA database, as shown in Figure 1F-K, the mRNA expression of HGF and MET were elevated obviously in highest AJCC stages, tumor grades and lymph node metastasis when compared with those in normal tissues (HGF: AJCC stage 4: P <0.001, tumor grade 3: P <0.0001, lymph node metastasis 3: P <0.0001; MET: AJCC stage 3: P <0.0001, tumor grade 3: P <0.0001, lymph node metastasis 3: P <0.05). Here, MET is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.