Furthermore, Porta et al. [25] showed that circulating IL6 could be regarded as a tumor marker for HCC, and Wong et al. [26] concluded that high serum IL6 level could predict future HCC development in patients with chronic hepatitis B. In line with these studies, the present study also revealed that a high preoperative serum IL-6 level is correlated with tumor recurrence risk of patients with HCC. This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and chronic hepatitis B virus infection.