STAT3 and urinary bladder cancer: To investigate the effect of the CM iCAF on the activation of IL-6 signaling pathway in bladder cancer cells, we compared the expression levels of phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3) and phosphorylated AKT (pAKT) in RT4 cells cultured with CM iCAF to control media (CM HF and CM HF + TGFß).