The expression of CXCL8 in urine specimens and the tumour microenvironment of bladder cancer patients is significantly higher than that of healthy volunteers (Pignot et al., 2009; Sheryka et al., 2003), and the overexpression of CXCL8 is positively correlated with significantly reduced survival of patients overall (Zhang et al., 2014). Here, CXCL8 is linked to urinary bladder cancer.