STAT3 and gastritis: Chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, such as that occurring in gastritis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), significantly increases the tumor development risk through the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNFα, IL-1, IL-6, IL-17A and IL-23, and also includes activation of NF-κB and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) (West et al., 2015; Lasry, Zinger & Ben-Neriah, 2016).