Presurgical (T0) levels of IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, TNFα (baselines) were significantly (p<0.05) lower in healthy donors versus CRC patients and these differences progressively increase with tumor stage (Fig. 1), whereas in the other cytokines no significant differences were observed (data not shown). The gene discussed is CXCL8; the disease is colorectal carcinoma.