G-CSF acts as an activating growth factor in NB and contributes to the CD114+ stem cell population growth through selective activation and upregulation of STAT3 (Hsu et al., 2013; Agarwal et al., 2015), a pro-oncogenic transcription factor involved in critical cellular functions, such as growth, division and apoptosis. The gene discussed is CSF3; the disease is neuroblastoma.