MMP7 and cancer: Additionally, we selected the top three upregulated genes, CLEC3A, MMP7, and LCN2, because the expression of CLEC3A, MMP7, and LCN2 have been reported to be useful markers in other kind of malignant tumors, and known to be associated with the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase)‐Akt pathway, which plays an important role in a subset of PNETs 34 as described below.