The main findings of this study are: (1) high neutrophil and macrophage infiltration and CXCL8 expression are associated with poor prognosis in the TCGA liver cancer dataset; (2) high expression of CCL2/CCR2 and CXCL8/CXCR2 in clinical HCC specimens is associated with poor prognosis; (3) the expression levels of CCL2/CCR2 and CXCL1/CXCR2 are correlated with hepatocarcinogenesis progression in the primary rat HCC model; and (4) blockade of CCL2/CCR2 and CXCL1/CXCR2 enhance the anti-tumor effect of TACE in the primary rat HCC model. Here, CXCR2 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.