As high as 80% (40/50; P = 0.0001) of tongue cancer cases showed strong expression of MMP-9, 68% (34/50; p = 0.06) for Bcl-2 and 78% (39/50; P = 0.0001) for cyclin D1 genes (Fig. 3d & Table 3). This evidence concerns the gene MMP9 and tongue cancer.