Paraffin-embedded sections of prostate cancer samples were deparaffinized, rehydrated, and microwaved for 20 min in Tris/EDTA buffer or citric acid buffer to retrieve antigens. Staining was carried out using primary antibodies against the following proteins: Gankyrin (ab182576, Abcam), HMGB1 (ab18256, Abcam), CD68 (M0876, Dako), STAT3 (ab32500, Abcam), p-STAT3 (ab76315, Abcam), and NONO (11058, Proteintech). Samples were scored semiquantitatively according to the percentage of staining intensity and positive cells using the H score (range 0–300), as described previously.20 (link) All the immunohistochemistry assays were repeated three times.