STAT3 and neoplasm: STAT3 regulating the growth and self-renewal of GSC was further established by two studies, demonstrating that the direct inhibition of STAT3 signaling using a short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated genetic knockdown of STAT3 or treatment with inhibitors of STAT3-DNA binding, leads to downregulation of stemness-associated genes, loss of capacity for tumor sphere formation, induction of cell apoptosis and differentiation, and a decrease in tumor-initiating capacity [44,45].