There was a significant correlation of HES1 or Slug expression with tumor size (P=0.0262; P=0.0092), lymph node metastasis (P=0.0129; P=0.0060) and advanced TNM stage (P=0.0001; P=0.0005) (Table 1). Here, SNAI2 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.