Aim of the study

To estimate serum interleukin 8 (IL-8) level in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) compared to controls and patients with chronic hepatitis (CH) and liver cirrhosis (LC).

Material and methods

Three databases, i.e. PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, were searched up to November 2017 without language restriction. The mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used by a random-effects analysis in RevMan version 5.3, and sensitivity analysis was performed as the secondary analysis.

Results

Out of 239 studies found, 10 studies recruiting 659 HCC patients, 237 controls, 357 patients with LC, and 48 patients with CH were included and analyzed in the meta-analysis. The pooled MDs were 39.48 (95%CI: 152.31, 406.47, p < 0.00001), 21.32 (95% CI: –6.04, 48.68, p = 0.13), and 36.46 (95% CI: 21.77, 51.15, p < 0.00001) in the patients with HCC compared to the controls, the patients with LC and those with CH, respectively.

Conclusions

An elevated serum IL-8 level in the HCC patients compared to the three other groups showed an increased risk for this cytokine in HCC patients. Therefore, this interleukin can be used as a new biomarker replacing alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) or as a clinical assay for evaluation of the pathogenesis and probably the progression or development of HCC.