Moreover, SMMC7721-IL-17-derived xenografts showed increased tumor cell proliferation while reduced apoptosis of HCC cells compared with the SMMC7721-mock group [proliferation index (mock vs IL-17), 71.260 ± 9.584 vs 83.820 ± 6.549, p = 0.042; apoptosis index (mock vs IL-17), 1.070 ± 0.222 vs 0.626 ± 0.320, p = 0.034; respectively; Additional file 5, Figure S5]. Here, IL17A is linked to neoplasm.