Similarly, our results show that downregulated SOCS2 could induce STAT3 phosphorylation in lung adenocarcinoma cells, whereas exogenous expression of SOCS2 leads to STAT3 inactivation; as such, these results are in agreement with the previous result that reduced expression of SOCS3 causes increased STAT3 phosphorylation in NSCLC lines and tissues30. Here, STAT3 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.