MMP12 protein is overexpressed in lung cancer and correlates with local recurrence and metastasis, as well as with early cancer-related deaths in non-small cell lung cancer patients (Kettunen et al., 2004; Hofmann et al., 2005; Sun et al., 2006; Tian et al., 2015). This evidence concerns the gene MMP12 and non-small cell lung carcinoma.