STAT3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: It has been confirmed that icaritin can inhibit proliferation and promote apoptosis of a wide variety of tumors, including HCC, by obstructing JAK/STAT3 signaling, and as a consequence, suppressing the expressions of tumor genes such as BCL-XL, BCL-2, C-MYC and SURVIVIN [10, 19, 20].