MLPH and neoplasm: As shown in Table 2, high MLPH expression was significantly associated with CEA ≥ 5 (p = 0.001), pre-treatment tumor status (T3–4; p = 0.022), post-treatment tumor status (T3–4; p < 0.001), post-treatment nodal status (N1–2; p < 0.001), vascular invasion (p = 0.028), and poor response to preoperative chemoradiotherapy (p < 0.001).