The results revealed that high expression level of NRF2 was associated with pathologic distant metastasis (odds ratio (OR) = 2.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.62–4.31; P < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.14, 95% CI: 1.53–3.00; P < 0.001), and tumour node metastasis (TNM) stage (OR = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.52–2.49, P < 0.001). This evidence concerns the gene NFE2L2 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.