Figure 1. Role of HBV infection in cancer-associated lymphangiogenesis / HBV infection could be involved in the suppression of cancer-associated fibroblasts to adopt a lymphatic endothelial morphology and function (mesenchymal-to-lymphatic endothelial transition) which has resulted in the low extent of cancer-associated lymphangiogenesis and led to a relatively low incidence of lymph node metastasis in HBV-associated ICC.