Our results are consistent with a recent study of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) where IL-6 induced the accumulation of CD11b+CD14+HLA-DR− MDSC by stimulating STAT3 signal and its level in plasma samples was correlated with tumor progression and poor prognosis [17]. The gene discussed is ITGAM; the disease is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.