An IL-8-neutralizing antibody (Zhu et al., 2015) and an anti-CCN2 neutralizing antibody which lead to reduced IL-6 production (Makino et al., 2018) have both shown therapeutic potential in suppressing tumor progression of HCC in vitro and in vivo with a xenograft murine model. The gene discussed is CCN2; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.