STAT3 and cancer: Furthermore, aberrant STAT3 expression may play a role in maintaining survival and plasticity of cancer stem cells, as STAT3 is known to support pluripotency by upregulating sox2 [SRY-box 2], Nanog [Homeobox protein nanog], and c-myc [MYC proto-onco gene] (Kiuchi et al., 1999; Foshay and Gallicano, 2008; Gregory et al., 2008; Kamiya et al., 2011).