CD44, MMP-2, MMP-9, N-cadherin, and ZEB-2 were selected because they complementarily represent the three main axes of early tumor invasion: cell adhesion (CD44 and N-cadherin), extracellular matrix degradation (MMP-2 and MMP-9), and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (N-cadherin) [49,50,51,52]. Here, MMP9 is linked to neoplasm.