STAT3 and breast cancer: In our study, we compared the effects of HC and curcumin on carcinogenicity of breast cancers, and demonstrated for the first time that HC was more effective than curcumin in suppressing cell proliferation, colony formation, cell migration, invasion, and induction apoptosis in human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231, MCF-7), along with inhibition of STAT3 phosphorylation (Tyr705) and downregulation of STAT3 downstream targets.