In addition, CXCL5 could promote migration of gastric cancer cells via activating CXCR2/STAT3 feed-forward loop, CXCR2 was found to overexpress in gastric cancer tissue and the expression of CXCR2 was higher in six different gastric cancer cell lines, including the two gastric cancer cell lines used in our study, compared to that in a normal gastric epithelium cell line [36]. Here, STAT3 is linked to gastric cancer.