STAT3 and cancer: Our recent study found that salidroside elicited the apoptosis of cancer cells and inhibited cancer cells by stimulating immune cells and releasing a number of cytokines, on the other hand, it could suppress the progression of gastric cancer by decreasing the expression of transcription factors STAT3, DEC1 and related target protein VEGF in cancer cells.27 In this study, 1384 target genes of miRNAs after salidroside treatment were differentially expressed in cancer cells.