BGN and neoplasm: In addition, high BGN expression was significantly associated with tumor invasion depth (p < 0.001), lymphatic vessel invasion (p = 0.001), and increased expression of CAF markers, αSMA (p = 0.003) and FAP (p = 0.022), and macrophage markers, CD68 (p = 0.049) and CD163 (p = 0.007), in ESCC tissues (Table 2).