ALB and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: In univariate analysis, 10 variables were associated with lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer, which included preoperative albumin level, enlarged lymph nodes on CT, ulcers, macroscopic features, tumor size, depth of invasion, carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI) and histological type (Table 1).