STAT3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Several oncogenic signaling pathways in cancer stem cells of HCC, have been described including activated PI3K/AKT [79], signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) [80, 81], Notch [82], Hedgehog [83, 84], and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) [85, 86].