In patients with lymph node metastasis, the lymphatic vessel density, the number of TAMs, and the expression of VEGF-C in paracancerous tissue were higher than in tumor tissue (P < 0.05), while the density of lymphatic vessels, the number of TAMs, and the expression of VEGF-C in tumor tissue were not significantly different from those in paracancerous tissue (P > 0.05; Table 3). Here, VEGFC is linked to neoplasm.