In pair-wise scatter plots with Loess smooth curves showing the relationship between the mean percentage of PBMCs displaying p-STAT-3 and the percentage of tumor cells displaying p-STAT-3, the Spearman correlation was 0.46 and a nonlinear trend indicated that there was no correlation between tumor and PBMC p-STAT-3 expression (P = 0.15) (Fig. 3 and Table 2). The gene discussed is STAT3; the disease is neoplasm.