STAT3 and cancer: Growing preclinical evidence further indicates that curcumin modulates several key molecular pathways involved in tumor initiation and progression—including NF-κB, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) axis—thereby inhibiting cancer growth and promoting apoptosis in numerous experimental models [21,22,23,24].