The correlation analyses showed that IGSF9 and PRDM16 protein levels inversely correlated with lymph node metastasis (IGSF9, R = −0.32, P < 0.01; PRDM16, R = −0.336, P < 0.01), while ALDH2 protein expression positively correlated with lymph node metastasis (ALDH2, R = 0.262, P < 0.05; Supplementary Table 2). Here, ALDH2 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.