STAT3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: For example, Xu et al and Shi et al showed that ERα is inhibitory on HCC progression by inactivating NF-κB and STAT3 [14,15], whereas it was also demonstrated that estrogen receptors might promote HCC development by downregulating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) or interfering with Wnt pathway [16,17].