STEAP3 can promote TFR1 expression and increase cell iron content by activating STAT3-forkhead box protein M1 (FOXM1) axis (Sendamarai et al., 2008; Isobe et al., 2011), thus inducing epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT) in GBM, which is a route for GBM invasion and metastasis (Chang et al., 2017; Terry et al., 2017). Here, STEAP3 is linked to glioblastoma.