In this scenario, interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, that was often found elevated in advanced cancers including STS (Hagi et al., 2017; Nakamura et al., 2020), can reduce gut iron absorption resulting in blood Hb drop (Nemeth et al., 2004). The gene discussed is GSTM1; the disease is telomere syndrome.