Makinen et al. associated MMP-13 with invasion depth and poor prognosis.20 Of all the nine MMPs under investigation in the current study, a single proteinase (MMP-12) was identified with high confidence (p< 0.05) and 4 proteinases (MMP-2, -8, -10 and -12) showed a significant expression change between cancer patients and healthy controls. The gene discussed is MMP12; the disease is cancer.