The tumorigenic effect of A-FABP is mediated by TAMs and the expression of A-FABP in TAMs regulates the NFκB/miR-29b signal transduction pathway and promotes IL-6/STAT3 signal transduction in tumour cells; therefore, macrophages in advanced tumours show preferential expression of A-FABP and support tumour progression through IL-6/STAT3 signal transduction (Hao et al., 2018; Vitale et al., 2019). Here, STAT3 is linked to neoplasm.