SOCS3 and head and neck cancer: Consistently, hyper-methylation of the SOCS3 promoter is found in 90% of head and neck cancer [42], followed by lung cancer, prostate cancer, Barrett esophagus carcinoma and ulcerative colitis-related colorectal cancer [19], suggesting that methylation-induced inactivation of the SOCS3 gene may be an early event in these cancers.