Significance of STAT3 Activation in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a latent transcription factor whose activation plays immense role in cell proliferation, survival, differentiation and development. Activation of STAT3 relies on phosphorylation at tyrosine residues promoting dimerization and subsequent nuclear translocation and activation of transcription. This study explores the relation between STAT3 and activated STAT3 (p-STAT3) in malignancy of breast. A high expression of STAT3 was found in breast cancer compared to adjacent normal breast tissues. A significant correlation between STAT3 and p-STAT3 was also observed. We also examined possible associations of these biomarkers with various clinicopathological parameters of breast cancer patients. The results revealed that both STAT3 and p-STAT3 are strongly associated with some of the major risk factors of breast cancer. Our findings implicate that targeting STAT3 signalling pathway could be an effective therapeutic approach for breast cancer.