Our results agree with previous studies of MMP14 in gastric cancer and provide further validation that survival is worse among gastric cancer patients with a high tissue MMP14 expression.5, 9, 10 Here, survival was worse particularly among patients with lymph node‐metastases, no distant metastases, pT3 tumors, and importantly, among patients with either no nuclear or low cytoplasmic PROX1 immunoreactivity. Here, MMP14 is linked to gastric cancer.