STAT3 and colorectal carcinoma: Indeed, knockdown of progranulin in CRC cell lines associates with reduced proliferation and arrest of cells in the S phase of the cell cycle, as well as with a marked and specific downregulation of cyclin D1 and CDC25A, two pivotal mitogenic proteins overexpressed and positively regulated by constitutively active STAT3 in CRC (Carpenter and Lo, 2014).