DKK3 and neoplasm: In human PC cells, PC3, IL30 gene deletion (Fig. 1D) reshaped a wide range of PC driver genes, among which AR (− 5.96 times), CCND2 (− 20.25 times), PTGS1 (− 11.31 times), PTGS2 (− 3.88 times), SOX4 (− 6.38 times), VEGFA (− 3.35 times) and especially IGF1 (− 52.22 times) were inhibited, whereas a range of tumor suppressors were upregulated, such as TNFRSF10D (4.84 times), DKK3 (9.03 times) and, primarily SOCS3 (18.41 times).