CXCL2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Specifically, the increased expression levels of MMP9 (p = 0.028), SPP1 (p = 0.0001) and SRC (p = 0.032) and the decreased expression levels of CXCL2 (p = 0.026) were strongly related to poorer prognosis in HCC patients (Fig 5).