CXCL8 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In this present study, we found that CXCL8 was positively correlated with CD68 expression in the IT region, which indicated that CXCL8 might be responsible for macrophage recruitment into tumor nests, which adds to the complexity of CXCR2-mediated leukocyte recruitment to the HCC tumor microenvironment.