STAT3 and lung cancer: A recent study by Zhang et al. showed that lung cancer cell lines expressing IL-22R1 are protected from chemotherapeutic drug-induced apoptosis by autocrine IL-22 via activation of STAT3 and its downstream anti-apoptotic proteins.        92  In addition, the oncogenic role of STAT3 in ALK+ALCL has been widely studied, and it is suggested that STAT3 activation inhibits apoptosis in these cells.        93