STAT3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Building on our previous work, which identified the significant role of SSd in COX2 suppression in hepatocarcinogenesis and its chemo-preventative effects in HCC (He et al., 2006; He et al., 2014; Liang et al., 2010; Lu et al., 2012), in this report, we extended our study to show that anti-tumorigenic effects of SSd act through the intermediatory p-STAT3/C/EBPβ signaling pathway to suppress COX-2.