MMP7 participates in the development of multiple malignant tumors and is associated with the invasion and metastasis of cancers, including CRC (Gao et al., 2019), lung cancer (Stenvold et al., 2012), pancreatic cancer (Fukuda et al., 2011; Chen et al., 2013), tongue squamous cell carcinoma (Yuan et al., 2020) and prostate cancer (Lynch et al., 2005). The gene discussed is MMP7; the disease is tongue squamous cell carcinoma.