CIRBP and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses indicated that age, sex, tumor size and American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage showed no prognostic significance, but lymph node metastasis (N1, P < 0.001), histologic differentiation (Grade III, P < 0.001) and CIRBP expression (High, P = 0.047) were independent prognostic factors for the overall survival of PDAC patients (Table 2).