No significant difference between phosphorylation and acetylation of STAT3 in the tumour stroma of both head and neck and lung tumours biopsies was observed, which corroborates the in vitro evidence that STAT3 acetylation is compulsory for phosphorylation of the STAT3 tyrosine 705 residue (Supplementary Fig. 6a–c). Here, STAT3 is linked to neoplasm.