Table 5.

Comparison of VEGF-C expression levels between the metastasis- and non-metastasis groups

	VEGF-C mRNA expression			VEGF-C positive rate (%)
Tissue type	Metastasis	Non-metastasis	P	Metastasis	Non-metastasis	P
Cancer tissues	2.27 ± 0.39	2.92 ± 0.48	0.455	68.4 (13/19)	90.9 (20/22)	> 0.05
Normal tissues	0.95 ± 0.18	1.18 ± 0.27	0.948	47.4 (9/19)	45.5 (10/22)	> 0.05
Lymph nodes	1.21 ± 0.23	1.46 ± 0.24	0.314	68.4 (13/19)	9.1 (2/22)	< 0.001*

* P < 0.05 is considered statistically significant

Within parenthesis: number of eligible cases