ALB and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: When we compared the differences in characteristics, we found that major resection (P = 0.002), perioperative transfusion (P = 0.013), HBsAg (+) (P = 0.006), anti-HCV (P = 0.027), satellite nodules (P = 0.001), cirrhosis (P = 0.015), lymph node metastasis (LNM) (P < 0.001), MVI (P = 0.030), adjacent tissue invasion (P = 0.019), AST (P = 0.041), GGT (P < 0.001), HgB (P < 0.001), ALB (P < 0.001), PLT (P < 0.001), WBC (P < 0.001), CEA (P = 0.004), CA199 (P < 0.001), and tumor diameter (P < 0.001) were significantly different among the three groups.