MMP‐9 is an enzyme secreted by pulmonary and immune cells that is active during embryonic development for lung branching morphogenesis and angiogenesis, processes that may be aberrantly activated during lung cancer, and is associated with all stages and poor prognosis for lung cancer (Atkinson & Senior, 2003; Cabral‐Pacheco et al., 2020; Wei, 2023). This evidence concerns the gene MMP9 and lung carcinoma.