STAT3 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: As described in Table 2, tumour size and lymph node metastasis were positively correlated with STAT3 hyperphosphorylation; however, there was no explicit relationship between positive p‐STAT3 staining and other clinicopathologic characteristics, such as age, sex, tumour node metastasis stage and recurrence risk stratification.