MMP9 and cancer: Of particular interest was a select group of genes documented to be upregulated with VM occurrence29,30; namely genes associated with vascular structures (CDH5 (vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin), EPHA2, KDR (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2,VEGFR2), genes associated with the extracellular matrix (laminin, LAMC2) and key matrix-metalloproteases (MMPs) MMP1, MMP2, MMP9, and MMP14. To identify only the changes caused by aspirin on the human cancer cells, we constructed primer sequences to detect only human genes (Supplementary Table 1).