IL6 and gastric cancer: Although both preoperative IL6 and TNFα showed important roles in predicting the prognosis of gastric cancer patients in the present study, preoperative TNFα was not the independent prognostic factor for DFS and OS after adjustment for preoperative IL6 and tumor stage, while preoperative IL6 was the independent prognostic factor after adjusted with preoperative TNFα and tumor stage.