IL6 and colorectal cancer: In colorectal cancer a HIF-1α/miR-338-5p/IL-6 feedback circuit mediates hypoxia induced-drug resistance by increasing the secretion of IL-6 and subsequently activating the IL-6/STAT/Bcl-2 pathway resulting in decreased levels of cleaved-caspase three under hypoxic conditions (Xu et al., 2019a).