STAT3 and colorectal cancer: Recent studies have made significant advances in understanding colorectal carcinogenesis, demonstrating the critical roles of non-canonical Wnt signaling in colorectal cancer formation and progression, and identifying the link between chronic colitis and colorectal cancer, particularly in deciphering the roles of cytokines and their downstream transcription factors NF-kB and STAT3 [3, 5, 7, 23, 24].