The presence of activated EGFR in the lungs of smokers could explain the high expression of phosphorylated STAT3 found in COPD (36), which would sustain the IL-6 roles in the acute phase response, chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, endothelial cell dysfunction, and cancer progression even in the presence of high levels of SOCS3 (36, 43). The gene discussed is STAT3; the disease is cancer.