MMP9 and cancer: Previous studies have shown the association of FoxM1 with VEGF, MMP-9 and MMP-2 in various cancers leading to increased invasiveness and migratory ability of cancer cells causing metastasis, and targeting FoxM1 has been shown to inhibit this phenomena via down-regulation of VEGF, MMP-9 and MMP-2 [7, 26, 33, 40].