In gastric cancer (GC), signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 acute-phase response factor (STAT3) induced lncRNA HAGLROS overexpression inhibits autophagy by mTOR signal-mediated inhibition, thus contributing to the malignant proliferation and invasion of GC cells and consequently predicting poorer outcomes in GC patients (Chen et al., 2018). This evidence concerns the gene STAT3 and gastric cancer.