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. The gene discussed is STAT3; the disease is cancer.