Studies showed that human breast cancer cells exposed to hypoxia are enough to induce the expression of ADAM12 in a HIF-dependent manner, leading to the shedding of HB-EGF outfield, enhancing EGFR signaling pathway propagation and downstream activation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) to trigger the breast cancer cells of motility, invasion and metastasis (66). Here, ADAM12 is linked to breast cancer.