IL17A and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: In a study of about 50 gastric cancer patients, high expression of IL-17 was associated with increased microvessel density, advanced clinical stage of tumors, and lymph node metastasis, leaving authors to hypothesize that IL-17 may promote angiogenesis in the tumor microenvironment.50 This has also been suggested in other studies since IL-17a can recruit neutrophils by inducing production of chemokines including IL-8, CXCL1, CXCL2 and CXCL5.