Our results showed that preoperative serum IL6, IL8, and TNF-α levels were significantly correlated with the postoperative tumor recurrence risk of the HCC patients, and both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that preoperative serum IL6 > 8.45 pg/ml, preoperative serum IL8 > 68 pg/ml, preoperative serum TNF − α > 14.9 pg/ml, MVI, and maximum tumor size > 6 cm were independent predictors of recurrence-free survival. Here, IL6 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.