But after adjusting for gender, age, the expression level of MET, EPS15, HGF, CDH1, LAD1, ITGB8, RAB25, CLDN7, MMP2, MMP9, VIM, CD44 potential confounding factors, the factors of MACC1 expression, new tumor event after initial treatment and pathology tumor size stage were positively associated with lymphatic metastasis; while the expression level of RCHY1 and KDF1 were negative with lymphatic metastasis (Table 3). Here, MMP9 is linked to neoplasm.