Our results demonstrated median expression of DDIT4 (P = 0.029) and SULF1 (P < 0.001) were significantly higher in patients with distant metastasis than patients without metastasis (frame D and E of Fig. 7) while median expression of TPTEP1 was higher in patients with only lymph node metastasis than patients without metastasis (P = 0.017) (frame F of Fig. 7). Here, SULF1 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.