STAT3 and carcinoma of esophagus: STAT3, a gene well known to function in apoptosis (22) and that induces G1-arrest when silenced in esophageal carcinoma (23), was significantly reduced by miR-323a-3p in all three cell lines, and a functional binding site for miR-323a-3p in the STAT3 3 ́UTR was confirmed by luciferase assay.