肝细胞癌（HCC）被认为是人类生命面临的最大挑战之一，也是肝癌的最常见形式。HCC的治疗取决于化疗、放疗、手术和免疫疗法等方式，这些治疗方法都存在各自的缺点，并且由于HCC细胞的侵袭性，患者可能会产生对这些治疗方法的抗药性。通过靶向分子信号通路可以开发新的有效治疗HCC的疗法。信号转导和转录激活因子3（STAT3）在人类癌细胞中的表达会发生变化，在癌症进展期间，其表达倾向于增加。生长因子和细胞因子诱导STAT3信号通路后，STAT3会被磷酸化并转位到细胞核中调节肝癌的进展。本文的主要内容围绕STAT3在HCC中的表达和磷酸化状态展开，研究表明，在HCC的进展过程中，STAT3的表达很高。本文阐述了STAT3作为HCC肿瘤原因子的作用，因为STAT3可以防止细胞凋亡，并因此促进HCC的进展。此外，STAT3在HCC中调节既有促进生存、又有诱导死亡的自噬，并通过诱导上皮-间质转化（EMT）推动肿瘤转移。此外，STAT3的上调与HCC中的耐化疗性和放疗性的发生有关。具体来说，非编码转录本调节HCC中的STAT3信号通路，它们被抗肿瘤剂所抑制可以影响肿瘤的发展。本文详细讨论了以上所有议题，为进一步了解STAT3在肿瘤发生、治疗抵抗和HCC的药理调控中的作用提供深入的见解。© 2023. 作者（们）。

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is considered one of the greatest challenges to human life and is the most common form of liver cancer. Treatment of HCC depends on chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and immunotherapy, all of which have their own drawbacks, and patients may develop resistance to these therapies due to the aggressive behavior of HCC cells. New and effective therapies for HCC can be developed by targeting molecular signaling pathways. The expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in human cancer cells changes, and during cancer progression, the expression tends to increase. After induction of STAT3 signaling by growth factors and cytokines, STAT3 is phosphorylated and translocated to the nucleus to regulate cancer progression. The concept of the current review revolves around the expression and phosphorylation status of STAT3 in HCC, and studies show that the expression of STAT3 is high during the progression of HCC. This review addresses the function of STAT3 as an oncogenic factor in HCC, as STAT3 is able to prevent apoptosis and thus promote the progression of HCC. Moreover, STAT3 regulates both survival- and death-inducing autophagy in HCC and promotes cancer metastasis by inducing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In addition, upregulation of STAT3 is associated with the occurrence of chemoresistance and radioresistance in HCC. Specifically, non-protein-coding transcripts regulate STAT3 signaling in HCC, and their inhibition by antitumor agents may affect tumor progression. In this review, all these topics are discussed in detail to provide further insight into the role of STAT3 in tumorigenesis, treatment resistance, and pharmacological regulation of HCC.© 2023. The Author(s).