To determine whether IL-8 is the dominant stimulus of inflammatory mediators and to examine the co-operative effects of inflammatory mediators in HNSCC, following the incubation of SCC25 cells with IL-8 (10 and 100 ng/ml) for 72 h, the gene and protein expressions of IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and TNF-α were determined by RT-PCR and western blotting. The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.