STAT3 and cancer: Thus, through its immunomodulatory properties, curcumin interacts with various immune mediators such as cytokines, radical oxygen species (ROS), cyclooxygenase (COX-2), nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), protein kinase B (AKT), protein activator 1 (AP1), signal transducer, and transcription activator 3 (STAT3), which play important roles within the process of cancer initiation and development [16,17,18].