Comparison of the cytokine expression profiles of plasma between control and XIAOPI treatment groups showed there to be 8 kinds of cytokines down-regulated following XIAOPI administration including CCL11, G-CSF, IL-12p40/70, IL-12/p70, CCL2, CXCL-2, sTMFR1 and TNF-α, while the expression of TIMP-1, a cancer metastasis inhibition gene, was upregulated by XIAOPI. Here, CSF3 is linked to cancer.