Enrichment analyses of transcription factors (TFs) of upstream DEGs in the ceRNA network indicated that inflammatory bowel disease (JUN, NFKB1, STAT1, STAT3 and GATA6) and pathways in cancer (CCDC6, CEBPA, JUN, NFKB1, NKX31, PPARG, RUNX1, STAT1, STAT3, STAT5A, and STAT5B) were included in the KEGG pathway list (Fig. 6A and Table 3). This evidence concerns the gene STAT3 and cancer.