AXL and neoplasm: Consistent with the view that the ROBO3/AXL regulatory network promoted tumor aggressiveness through the IL-6/STAT3 axis, we observed significantly reduced expression of AXL and p-STAT3 in dCas9-ROBO3 tumors, whereas tumors derived from LacZ showed robust expression of AXL and p-STAT3 (Figure 7, A and B; and Figure 4, E and F).