STAT3 and gastric cancer: The present discovery that these two pathways converge in the regulation of STAT3 and its downstream targets in GC cells provides a mechanistic explanation to the positive correlation observed in GC cohorts (Fig. 1) between the expression of LIF and FGFR4 and establishes a regulatory network linking between LIF and FGF19 in FGFR4 regulation in GC.