In the gene set enrichment analysis in PAAD patients from TCGA, we found that the JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway, which was reported to induce CXCL1 expression,33 was significantly enriched in both BICC1 high patients and LCN2 high patients (Fig. 6a). This evidence concerns the gene CXCL1 and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.