MMP9 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In summary, our study provides a novel perspective on the potential role of MMP-9 and MMP-2 to promote invasion and metastasis of HCC and reveals that patients with ruptured FC aggregated a significant number of macrophages and macrophage-derived MMP-9 and MMP-2 in the ruptured FC area, which could destroy the FC and caused HCC cells to invade from the tumor area to the paracancerous liver tissues through the ruptured FC area.