Western blotting showed that TP73‐AS1 overexpression notably suppressed the expression levels of HLJ1, JunD, and E‐cadherin and increased the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 and MMP9, which play key roles in the degradation of the basement membrane collagen of cancer cells,21, 22 while TP73‐AS1 silencing resulted in the opposite effect (Figure 8E,F), thereby suggesting that TP73‐AS promoted cell migration and invasion, which might be mediated by repressing E‐cadherin, JunD, and HLJ1 and upregulating MMP2 and MMP9. This evidence concerns the gene MMP2 and cancer.