STAT3 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Our finding that p-EGFR was highly correlated to the phosphorylation of AKT1, AKT2, ERK1/2, and STAT3 indicated that p-EGFR possibly contributed to the activation of these downstream pathways in ESCC, suggesting that the EGFR pathways might be active in some patients with ESCC.