This finding is also reminiscent of the central role of IL-10 and TGF-β in liver tumorigenesis, where it has been postulated that the interplay between intrahepatic IL-10 and TGF-β determines fibrogenic severity in chronic HCV patients, which consequently relates to the risk of HCC development/progression [21, 22, 52]. This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and hepatocellular carcinoma.