TACE is a common treatment modality for patients with advanced HCC.[3, 4] However, one of the side effects is the induction of hypoxic conditions, which facilitate HIF‐driven responses in tumor cells and activate the expression of specific genes involved in angiogenesis, cell proliferation, migration, and immunosuppression.[27, 28, 29] In the present study, we observed that preoperative TACE increased the level of S100A9 via hypoxia‐derived HIF1A in HCC tissues instead of immune cells. The gene discussed is HIF1A; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.