The analysis of CD68+ and CD163+ macrophage infiltration densities and clinicopathological parameters showed that the number of patients with a high infiltration density of the M2 macrophage marker CD163+ in the TS was significantly higher than that of patients with a low infiltration density in TNM stage III + IV (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference in age, tumor diameter, lymph node metastasis or grade, as shown in Table 2. Here, CD163 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.