Further functional enrichment analysis revealed that CSMs up-regulated in AML were enriched in biological processes associated with the inflammatory response, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, IL-6/JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway, and IL-2/STAT5 signaling (Fig. 2C), indicating that the up-regulated cell-surface proteins in AML may be associated with the immune response and tumor development. This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and acute myeloid leukemia.