Interestingly, IL-8/CXCR2-mediated autocrine activation was described to activate intrinsic strategies of malignant tumor cells to evade stress-induced apoptosis [30], and might therefore be one of the underlying mechanisms that leads to TACE refractoriness in the subgroup of patients with high serum IL-8 levels in our cohort. This evidence concerns the gene CXCL8 and neoplasm.