Phenotype abnormality of this axis (HIF-1α+/PKM2+) was significantly correlated with bigger tumor size (76.1% vs 28.6%), capsular invasion (78.0% vs 36.8%) and lymph node metastasis (82.4% vs 42.3%) (P < .05) (Table 4). Here, PKM is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.