Consistently, a relative serum expression ≥2 (serum expression of colon cancer patients/ serum expression of control serum group) of MMP7 (HR: 2.8 [95 % CI: 1.1–6.8], p = 0.02), MMP10 (HR: 2.6 [95 % CI: 1.2–5.9], p = 0.015) and MMP12 (HR: 2.9 [95 % CI: 1.1–7.8], p = 0.025) correlated with a significantly shortened overall survival (Fig. 2a-c). This evidence concerns the gene MMP12 and colonic neoplasm.