Studies have confirmed that compared with that in GC patients without lymph node metastasis, AKR1B10 was significantly reduced in GC patients with lymph node metastasis; furthermore, it was negatively correlated with tumor size (P<0.001), depth of invasion (P<0.001), and tumor, nodes, and metastasis (TNM) stage (P<0.001) and regulated the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) of GC cells [22]. This evidence concerns the gene AKR1B10 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.