Evidence for its’ functional role in metastasis was elegantly demonstrated in preclinical colorectal cancer (CRC) liver metastasis models, as well as in the profiling of CRC clinical samples, showing that the secretion of IL-11 by TGF-β-stimulated CAFs led to gp130/STAT3 signaling activation in the cells of the TME to mediate metastatic outgrowth in the liver [96]. Here, STAT3 is linked to colorectal cancer.