STAS was significantly associated with age, surgical approach, CEA, CTR, TNM stage, tumor grade, gross tumor size, resection margin, vessel cancer embolus, pleural invasion, lymph node metastasis, high ki-67 and positive PD-L1 stainnig (P < 0.05) (Tables 2-3). Here, MKI67 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.