STAT3 and nonpapillary renal cell carcinoma: Previous studies5, 7 indicate that an important step in the TNFR2 signaling pathway that drives cell cycle entry in ccRCC involves crosstalk between phosphorylation of vascular endothelial cell growth factor receptor type 2, epithelial tyrosine kinase, PI3K, Akt, mTORC, and STAT3 on serine 727 (pStat3Ser727).