STAT3 and breast carcinoma: Nicotine exposure promotes the apoptosis resistance of breast cancer cells by increasing α9 expression, which activates STAT3 nuclear translocation and physical interactions with the promoters of the gene coding for Galectin-3 (LGALS3), an intra-cellular anti-apoptotic α-galactoside-binding lectin (Guha et al., 2014; see Figure 1), and the TWIST1 promoter.