Moreover, the expression level of individual genes in this panel, including GBP5, IL7R, PNMA2, ITGA3, COL16A1, FCGR1A, MEP1A, CTSV, FAM183A and PLAC8, were strongly associated with distant metastasis, lymph node metastasis, tumor stage, clinical stage, or pathologic grade. Here, COL16A1 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.