During metastasis, tumour cells will leave the primary tumour in the ovary and metastasize to abdominal organs (omentum, spleen, lymph node and liver), in which they develop secondary tumours and malignant ascites.3, 31, 32 Recent studies have suggested that constitutively activated Stat3 signalling pathway is critical to the invasion and metastasis of malignant tumours. The gene discussed is STAT3; the disease is cancer.