IL6 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Among six investigated cytokines, the expression levels of IL-6 (9.30 ± 1.51 vs 7.32 ± 1.49pg/ml), -22 (270.83 ± 34.73 vs 120.19 ± 23.03pg/ml), -17R (14.52 ± 2.79 vs 2.40 ± 1.10pg/ml) and TNF-α (66.00 ± 10.85 vs 28.60 ± 6.80pg/ml) were significantly higher in HCC patients than hemangiomas patients (P < 0.001, Figure 4).