Ao et al. found that treatment with the CSF-1R inhibitor PLX3397 resulted in delayed tumor growth in both xenograft and allograft models in HCC, and this delay was probably mediated by the transition from M2 to M1 macrophages in a population of TAMs induced by a block in the CSF1/CSF-1R signaling pathway (Ao et al., 2017). This evidence concerns the gene CSF1 and hepatocellular carcinoma.