Our correlation analysis based on high IHC scores showed that USP22 was significantly upregulated in CCA (p < 0.05) (Fig. 1D), mainly in patients with a larger tumour, microvascular invasion and lymph node metastasis during a complete 57-month follow-up with the median period of 16.7 months (Table 1). Here, USP22 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.