LIFR and pancreatic neoplasm: As a paracrine factor, LIF binds to the heterodimer of LIFR and gp130 on the surface of pancreatic cancer cells, activates the JAK/STAT3 pathway and ultimately induces transcription of genes which are known to regulate cell cycle, apoptosis, angiogenesis and invasion (Dauer et al. 2005; Shi et al. 2019).