STAT3 and ulcerative colitis: A study performed by Jablons DM et al. discovered that inhibition of SOCS3 by hypermethylation significantly facilitated the tumor growth of lung cancer [44] and ulcerative colitis-related colorectal cancer [45], suggesting that hypermethylation might be the predominate reason responsible for the downregulation of the SOCS3 protein, which further contributes to cancer progression by activating of the STAT3 cascade.