STAT3 and autoimmune disease: However, persistent activity of STAT3 in response to unregulated hormone signaling or oncogenic tyrosine kinases leads to the induction of genes that positively control proliferation in cancer, tumor cell invasion, or chronic inflammation that can progress into life-long autoimmune diseases [4], [6], [51], [52], [53], [54], [55], [56], [57], [58].