ABSTRACT. Signal transducer and activator of transcription protein 3 (STAT3) has been implicated in cancer development and is recognized as a type of oncogene. However, association studies of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the STAT3 gene with cancer risk are rare and not available for lung cancer. We examined whether STAT3 polymorphisms are associated with the risk of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Eight SNPs in the STAT3 gene were genotyped by TaqMan assays in 326 NSCLC cases and 432 controls in a Chinese population. Significant decreased risk of NSCLC was observed for carriers of minor alleles rs4796793 (odds ratio (OR) = 0.68, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.51-0.