STAT3 and gastric neoplasm: Wu LJ et al., on immunohistochemical analyses demonstrated that overexpression of STAT3 in tumor cell-free lymph nodes of gastric tumors was significantly associated with tumor recurrence.26 They also revealed that persistent STAT3 activation in tumor-free lymph nodes was positively related to poor overall survival.26 Several pre-clinical studies have suggested STAT3 inhibition may be a promising target for improving targeted cancer treatment.27,28