A novel statistical prognostic score model that includes serum CXCL5 levels and clinical classification predicts risk of disease progression and survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients

L1CAM deployed perivascular tumor niche promotes vessel wall invasion of tumor thrombus and metastasis of renal cell carcinoma

The survival of tumor cells in the bloodstream, and vasculature adhesion at metastatic sites are crucial for tumor metastasis. Perivascular invasion aids tumor cell self-renewal, survival, and formation of metastases by facilitating readily available oxygen, nutrients, and endothelial-derived paracrine factors. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is among the most prevalent tumors of the urinary system, and the formation of venous tumor thrombus (VTT) is a characteristic feature of RCC. We observed high expression of L1CAM in the VTT with vessel wall invasion. L1CAM promotes the adhesion, migration, and invasion ability of RCC and enhances metastasis by interacting with ITGA5, which elicits activation of signaling downstream of integrin α5β1. L1CAM promotes ADAM17 transcription to facilitate transmembrane ectodomain cleavage and release of soluble L1CAM. In response to soluble L1CAM, vascular endothelial cells release several cytokines and chemokines. Endothelial-derived CXCL5 and its receptor CXCR2 promote the migration and intravasation of RCC toward endothelial cells suggesting that crosstalk between endothelial cells and tumor cells has a direct guiding role in driving the metastatic spread of RCC. LICAM plays a crucial role in the invasive ability of RCC, and regulation of L1CAM expression may contribute therapeutically to preventing RCC progression.

Targeting CXCL5 in Pancreatic Cancer Cells Inhibits Cancer Xenograft Growth by Reducing Proliferation and Inhibiting EMT Progression

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the most lethal malignant tumor, with average survival period of about 10 months. C-X-C ligand 5 (CXCL5), an important chemokine for immune cell accumulation in tumor tissues, has been reported to be involved in a variety of human cancers. However, the exact role of CXCL5 in PC progression has not been well defined.

METHODS

The expression of CXCL5 in PC was analyzed based on online databases and clinical specimens immunohistochemical staining, and Western blotting of CXCL5 in PC cell lines and patient samples. The correlation between CXCL5 expression and prognosis in PC was explored. The role of CXCL5 in PC was investigated through in vitro and in vivo experiments.

RESULTS

The expression of CXCL5 was significantly increased in PC tissues compared with that in pancreas tissues, and CXCL5 high expression predicts poor prognosis in PC patients. Further analyses demonstrated that overexpression of CXCL5 in PC cells was positively related to higher proliferation rate, higher migration ability, and higher EMT markers including SNAI2 and TWIST1 of tumor cells in vitro. Consistently, the knockdown of CXCL5 in PC cells harmed the proliferation rate, migration ability, and expression of EMT indexes of tumor cells in vitro. Importantly, knockdown of CXCL5 inhibited the growth of xenograft tumors in vivo.

CONCLUSION

CXCL5 high expression predicts poor prognosis in PC patients. CXCL5 promotes PC cell growth and EMT process. Inhibition of CXCL5 may be a potential therapeutic approach for PC.

A novel prognostic model predicts overall survival in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma based on clinical features and blood biomarkers

This study aims to develop and validate a novel prognostic model to estimate overall survival (OS) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients based on clinical features and blood biomarkers. We assessed the model's incremental value to the TNM staging system, clinical treatment, and Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) DNA copy number for individual OS estimation. We retrospectively analyzed 519 consecutive patients with NPC. A prognostic model was generated using the Lasso regression model in the training cohort. Then we compared the predictive accuracy of the novel prognostic model with TNM staging, clinical treatment, and EBV DNA copy number using concordance index (C‐index), time‐dependent ROC (tdROC), and decision curve analysis (DCA). Subsequently, we built a nomogram for OS incorporating the prognostic model, TNM staging, and clinical treatment. Finally, we stratified patients into high‐risk and low‐risk groups according to the model risk score, and we analyzed the survival time of these two groups using Kaplan–Meier survival plots. All results were validated in the independent validation cohort. Using the Lasso regression, we established a prognostic model consisting of 13 variables with respect to patient prognosis. The C‐index, tdROC, and DCA showed that the prognostic model had good predictive accuracy and discriminatory power in the training cohort than did TNM staging, clinical treatment, and EBV DNA copy number. Nomogram consisting of the prognostic model, TNM staging, clinical treatment, and EBV DNA copy number showed some superior net benefit. Based on the model risk score, we split the patients into two subgroups: low‐risk (risk score ≤ −1.423) and high‐risk (risk score > −1.423). There were significant differences in OS between the two subgroups of patients. Similar results were observed in the validation cohort. The proposed novel prognostic model based on clinical features and serological markers may represent a promising tool for estimating OS in NPC patients.

Seven-gene signature on tumor microenvironment for predicting the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer

Background

The aim of the present study was to construct a novel gene signature on the tumor microenvironment (TME) to predict the prognosis of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

Methods

We downloaded gene expression profiles and clinical information of PDAC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) datasets, as well as Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets (GSE78229, GSE62452, and GSE28735). Differentially expressed genes were generated by comparing high versus low score groups of immune/stromal subgroups based on the Estimation of STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumor tissues using Expression data algorithm. Subsequently, a prognostic risk score model was constructed and validated through univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Finally, functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interactions were performed to predict the functional implication of the prognostic model.

Results

We picked out 1,797 upregulated genes in immune groups and stromal groups. Through further analysis, we constructed a 7-gene signature on the TME. The risk score from the model effectively differentiated patients into high-risk and low-risk groups with different overall survival and was validated by GEO datasets. A functional analysis suggested that 7 selected genes and their co-expressed genes were mainly enriched in immune response, extracellular structure organization, and cell adhesion molecule binding.

Conclusions

Our results showed that the 7-gene model on the TME can be used to assess the prognosis of patients with PDAC.

CXCL5/CXCR2 axis in tumor microenvironment as potential diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target

The components of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in solid tumors, especially chemokines, are currently attracting much attention from scientists. C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 5 (CXCL5) is one of the important chemokines in TME. Overexpression of CXCL5 is closely related to the survival time, recurrence and metastasis of cancer patients. In TME, CXCL5 binds to its receptors, such as C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 2 (CXCR2), to participate in the recruitment of immune cells and promote angiogenesis, tumor growth, and metastasis. The CXCL5/CXCR2 axis can act as a bridge between tumor cells and host cells in TME. Blocking the transmission of CXCL5/CXCR2 signals can increase the sensitivity and effectiveness of immunotherapy and slow down tumor progression. CXCL5 and CXCR2 are also regarded as biomarkers for predicting prognosis and molecular targets for customizing the treatment. In this review, we summarized the current literature regarding the biological functions and clinical significance of CXCL5/CXCR2 axis in TME. The possibility to use CXCL5 and CXCR2 as potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer is also discussed.

Serum CXCL5 level is associated with tumor progression in penile cancer

Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 5 is an important regulator of tumor progression in many cancers, and could serve as potential serum cancer biomarker. Our initial analysis identified CXCL5 as a cancer-related gene highly expressed in PC. Patients with PC exhibited markedly higher preoperative serum CXCL5 levels compared with that in healthy individuals (P<0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.880 with the sensitivity of 84.0%, and specificity of 80.4% to distinguish PC. Serum CXCL5 levels were also significantly decreased following tumor resection in patients with PC (P=0.001). Preoperative serum CXCL5 level was significantly associated with clinicopathological characteristics including T stage (P=0.001), nodal status (P<0.001), and pelvic lymph node metastasis (P=0.018). Cox regression analysis showed that serum CXCL5 level could serve as an independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival with a HR of 6.363 (95% CI: 2.185–18.531, P=0.001). CXCL5 and its receptor CXCR2 exhibited correlated expression pattern in PC tissues. Differential CXCL5 expression was observed in normal penile tissues, PC cell lines, and their culture supernatants. Furthermore, knockdown of CXCL5 or CXCR2 expression markedly suppressed malignant phenotypes (cell proliferation, clonogenesis, apoptosis escape, migration, and invasion), attenuated STAT3 and AKT signaling, and reduced MMP2/9 secretion in PC cell lines. In conclusion, our findings revealed that serum CXCL5 level might serve as a potential diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarker for penile cancer. Autocrine CXCL5/CXCR2 signaling might activate multiple downstream oncogenic signaling pathways (STAT3, AKT, MMP2/9) to promote malignant progression of PC, which may warrant further investigation in the future.

Resistance to lysosomotropic drugs used to treat kidney and breast cancers involves autophagy and inflammation and converges in inducing CXCL5

Lysosomotropic agents such as sunitinib, lapatinib, and chloroquine belong to a drug family that is being used more frequently to treat advanced cancers. Sunitinib is standard care for metastatic renal cell carcinomas (mRCC) and lapatinib is used for trastuzumab/pertuzumab-refractory cancers. However, patients ineluctably relapse with a delay varying from a few months to a few years. To improve reactivity prior to relapse it is essential to identify the mechanisms leading to such variability. We showed previously that sunitinib became sequestered in lysosomes because of its basic pKa.

Methods: Modifications to gene expression in response to sunitinib and in sunitinib resistant cells were analyzed by transcriptomic and proteomic analysis. ROS production was evaluated by FACS. Nuclear Factor kappa B (NFkB)-dependent transcriptional regulation of inflammatory gene expression was evaluated with a reporter gene. Correlation of CXCL5 with survival was analyzed with an online available data base (TCGA) and using a cohort of patients enrolled in the SUVEGIL clinical trial (NCT00943839).

Results: We now show that sunitinib sequestration in lysosomes induced an incomplete autophagic process leading to activation of the NFkB inflammatory pathway. We defined a subset of inflammatory cytokines that were up-regulated by the drug either after an acute or chronic stimulus. One of the most up-regulated genes in sunitinib-resistant cells was the CXCL5 cytokine. CXCL5 was also induced in RCC by chloroquine and in a model of HER2 positive breast cancer cell lines after acute or chronic treatment with lapatinib. CXCL5 correlated to shorter survival in RCC and to the most aggressive forms of breast cancers. The levels of CXCL5 present in the plasma of patients treated with sunitinib were predictive of the efficacy of sunitinib but not of the VEGF-directed antibody bevacizumab.

Conclusion: This translational study identified CXCL5 as a biomarker of efficacy of lysosomotropic drugs, a potential asset for personalized medicine.

Prognostic significance of CXCL5 expression in cancer patients: a meta-analysis

Background

CXCL5 is a member of the CXC-type chemokine family, which has been found to play important roles in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Recent studies have demonstrated that CXCL5 could serve as a potential prognostic biomarker for cancer patients. However, the prognostic value of CXCL5 is still controversial.

Methods

We systematically searched PubMed, Embase and Web of Science to obtain all relevant articles investigating the prognostic significance of CXCL5 expression in cancer patients. Hazards ratios (HR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were pooled to estimate the association between CXCL5 expression levels with survival of cancer patients.

Results

A total of 15 eligible studies including 19 cohorts and 5070 patients were enrolled in the current meta-analysis. Our results demonstrated that elevated expression level of CXCL5 was significantly associated with poor overall survival (OS) (pooled HR 1.70; 95% CI 1.36–2.12), progression-free survival (pooled HR 1.65; 95% CI 1.09–2.49) and recurrence-free survival (pooled HR 1.49; 95% CI 1.15–1.93) in cancer patients. However, high or low expression of CXCL5 made no difference in predicting the disease-free survival (pooled HR 0.63; 95% CI 0.11–3.49) of cancer patients. Furthermore, we found that high CXCL5 expression was associated with reduced OS in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (HR 1.91; 95% CI 1.31–2.78) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HR 1.87; 95% CI 1.55–2.27). However, there was no significant association between expression level of CXCL5 with the OS in lung cancer (HR 1.25; 95% CI 0.79–1.99) and colorectal cancer (HR 1.16; 95% CI 0.32–4.22, p = 0.826) in current meta-analysis.

Conclusions

In conclusion, our meta-analysis suggested that elevated CXCL5 expression might be an adverse prognostic marker for cancer patients, which could help the clinical decision making process.

The CXCL5/CXCR2 axis contributes to the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells by activating ERK/GSK-3β/snail signalling

Background

Distant metastasis is the major cause of treatment failure in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Although several biomarkers correlate with metastasis and prognosis, the molecular mechanisms of NPC development and progression remain unclear.

Methods

Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR), western blotting, cell growth, foci formation, migration and invasion assays, and xenograft mouse models were utilized to examine the expression levels and functions of the CXCL5/CXCR2 axis in NPC. A luciferase reporter assay, western blotting, immunofluorescence, and migration and invasion assays were used to identify and verify the ERK/GSK-3β/Snail signalling pathway.

Results

CXCL5 was significantly increased in the sera of NPC patients, and high expression levels of CXCL5/CXCR2 in NPC primary tissues indicated poor survival. CXCL5 and CXCR2 were upregulated in NPC cell lines. Ectopic expression of the CXCL5/CXCR2 axis promoted NPC cell migration and invasion in vitro and the formation of lung metastases in vivo. Mechanistically, the dual overexpression of CXCL5 and CXCR2 promoted cell spreading by inducing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) through the activation of the ERK/GSK-3β/Snail signalling pathway.

Conclusion

The CXCL5/CXCR2 axis contributes to the EMT of NPC cells by activating ERK/GSK-3β/Snail signalling, and this axis may be a potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for patients with NPC.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-018-0722-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

CXCL5 Facilitates Melanoma Cell-Neutrophil Interaction and Lymph Node Metastasis

Chemokines influence tumor metastasis by targeting tumor, stromal, and hematopoietic cells. Characterizing the chemokine mRNA expression profile of human primary melanoma samples, we found CXCL5 significantly up-regulated in stage T4 primary melanomas when compared to thin melanomas (T1 stage). To characterize the role of CXCL5 in melanoma progression, we established a metastasizing murine xenograft model using CXCL5-overexpressing human melanoma cells. CXCL5 had no effect on melanoma proliferation in vitro and on primary tumor growth in vivo, but CXCL5-overexpressing tumors recruited high amounts of neutrophils and exhibited significantly increased lymphangiogenesis in our severe combined immune-deficient mouse model. Recruited neutrophils were found in close proximity to or within lymphatic vessels, often in direct contact with melanoma cells. Clinically, CXCL5-overexpressing melanomas had significantly increased lymph node metastases. We were able to translate these findings to human patient samples and found a positive correlation between CXCL5 expression, numbers of neutrophils in stage T4 primary melanoma, and the occurrence of subsequent locoregional metastasis.

The clinical significance of CXCL5 in non-small cell lung cancer

As a CXC-type chemokine, ENA78/CXCL5 is an important attractant for granulocytes by binding to its receptor CXCR2. Recent studies proved that CXCL5/CXCR2 axis plays an oncogenic role in many human cancers. However, the exact clinical significance of CXCL5 in lung cancer has not been well defined. Here, we found that the serum protein expression of CXCL5 was significantly increased in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared with that in healthy volunteers. Immunohistochemistry staining revealed that CXCL5 protein was higher in various lung cancer tissues compared with normal tissues. Moreover, CXCL5 expression correlated with histological grade, tumor size, and TNM stage in NSCLC. Elevated CXCL5 protein abundance predicted poor overall survival in adenocarcinoma patients. Further meta-analysis demonstrated that CXCL5 mRNA expression was also positively associated with tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and worse survival. Kaplan–Meier plot analyses indicated high CXCL5 was associated with short overall survival and progression-free survival. Together, these results indicated that CXCL5 may be a potential biomarker for NSCLC.

Development of a bifunctional nanobiosensor for screening and detection of chemokine ligand in colorectal cancer cell line

Highly sensitive detection of chemokines in various biological matrices and its interaction with a natural receptor molecule has tremendous importance in cell signaling, medical diagnostics, and therapeutics. In this direction, we have designed the first bifunctional nanobiosensor for chemokine screening and detection in a single experimental setting. The sensor probe was fabricated by immobilizing CXCR2 on the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) deposited 2,2':5',2''-terthiophene-3' (p-benzoic acid) (TBA) nanocomposite film. The interaction between CXCR2 and chemokines was studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and voltammetry. CXCL5 among three ligands showed the strongest affinity to CXCR2, which was further utilized to develop an amperometric CXCL5 biosensor. Analytical parameters, such as CXCR2 receptor concentration, temperature, pH, and incubation time were optimized to obtain the high sensitivity. A dynamic range for CXCL5 detection was obtained between 0.1 and 10ng/mL with the detection limit of 0.078 ± 0.004ng/mL (RSD < 4.7%). The proposed biosensor was successfully applied to detect CXCL5 in clinically relevant concentrations in human serum and colorectal cancer cells samples with high sensitivity and selectivity. Interference effect and the stability of the developed biosensor were also evaluated. Method verification was performed by comparing the results using commercially available ELISA kit for CXCL5 detection.

The Ratio of C-Reactive Protein/Albumin is a Novel Inflammatory Predictor of Overall Survival in Cisplatin-Based Treated Patients with Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

The C-reactive protein/albumin (CRP/Alb) ratio has been recently identified as a prognostic factor in various cancers, whereas its role remains unclear in metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The current study retrospectively analyzed 148 patients with metastatic NPC who underwent cisplatin-based chemotherapy and further evaluated the prognostic value of the CRP/Alb ratio and its association with clinical characteristics in these patients. The optimal cut-off value was 0.189 for the CRP/Alb ratio. The high CRP/Alb ratio was significantly associated with elevated NLR, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and EBV-DNA levels and decreased haemoglobin level (all p < 0.05). The results of multivariate analysis showed that the CRP/Alb ratio was an independent prognostic factor of overall survival. Patients with a high CRP/Alb ratio (≥0.189) had a 1.867 times (p = 0.024, 95% CI = 1.085–3.210) greater risk of mortality compared with those with a low CRP/Alb ratio (<0.189). In addition, combining the CRP/Alb ratio with GPS could accurately discriminate the prognosis of our patients. Our results suggested that the CRP/Alb ratio is a feasible and inexpensive tool for predicting survival outcomes and is a valuable coadjutant for the GPS to further identify differences in survivals of patients with metastatic NPC.

Development and validation of a nomogram for predicting the survival of patients with non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma after curative treatment

Background

The TNM staging system is far from perfect in predicting the survival of individual cancer patients because only the gross anatomy is considered. The survival rates of the patients who have the same TNM stage disease vary across a wide spectrum. This study aimed to develop a nomogram that incorporates other clinicopathologic factors for predicting the overall survival (OS) of non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients after curative treatments.

Methods

We retrospectively collected the clinical data of 1520 NPC patients who were diagnosed histologically between November 2000 and September 2003. The clinical data of a separate cohort of 464 patients who received intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) between 2001 and 2010 were also retrieved to examine the extensibility of the model. Cox regression analysis was used to identify the prognostic factors for building the nomogram. The predictive accuracy and discriminative ability were measured using the concordance index (c-index).

Results

We identified and incorporated 12 independent clinical factors into the nomogram. The calibration curves showed that the prediction of OS was in good agreement with the actual observation in the internal validation set and IMRT cohort. The c-index of the nomogram was statistically higher than that of the 7th edition TNM staging system for predicting the survival in both the primary cohort (0.69 vs. 0.62) and the IMRT cohort (0.67 vs. 0.63).

Conclusion

We developed and validated a novel nomogram that outperformed the TNM staging system in predicting the OS of non-metastatic NPC patients who underwent curative therapy.

The potential of CXCL5 as a target for liver cancer - what do we know so far?

CXCL5, epithelial cell derived neutrophil attractant 78, is a CXC chemokine predominantly expressed on epithelial cells. It has specificity for CXCR2 receptors and is involved in the recruitment and activation of neutrophils. CXCL5 is considered a therapeutic target in liver cancer, since treatment with small-interfering RNAs or antibodies against CXCL5 can suppress tumor growth, proliferation, migration and invasion. Experimental evidence demonstrated that CXCL5 antibodies could reduce the tumor growth and synergistically increase the efficiency of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Gefitinib, without the addition of toxicity. A number of challenges are encountered and should be considered during the development and clinical application of CXCL5 target-specific drugs. The specificity of CXCL5 as a therapeutic target for certain types and duration of cancer should be more carefully clarified, since it seems that CXCL5 is involved in many molecular pathways and crosstalk between targeted chemokines/receptors. The concept that CXCL5 serves as the therapeutic target for liver cancer was evidenced by preclinical studies, and is the beginning of CXCL5-based drug discovery and development.

Oncogenic roles of carbonic anhydrase IX in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX), a hypoxia-inducible protein in tumors, has been shown to be valuable for the prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the function and mechanism of CA IX has been not explored in NPC. Here, we found that CA IX was detected at higher levels in NPC cells and tissues than their corresponding partners. Furthermore, the cell growth, migration and invasion in vitro were altered with shRNA or overexpression of CA IX in NPC cells. More importantly, the metastatic ability of NPC cells stably expressing CA IX was significantly enhanced using the hepatic metastasis model of nude mice in vivo. Finally, the mTOR pathway was indicated to be involved in such effects of CA IX on NPC. This is the first evidence that CA IX may promote the NPC metastasis to potentially be a therapeutic target for NPC, and that the inhibitory molecules of CA IX and/or the mTOR pathway alone or combination with both may be worth to have a clinical trial for the patients with NPC.

Boosting the concordance index for survival data--a unified framework to derive and evaluate biomarker combinations

The development of molecular signatures for the prediction of time-to-event outcomes is a methodologically challenging task in bioinformatics and biostatistics. Although there are numerous approaches for the derivation of marker combinations and their evaluation, the underlying methodology often suffers from the problem that different optimization criteria are mixed during the feature selection, estimation and evaluation steps. This might result in marker combinations that are suboptimal regarding the evaluation criterion of interest. To address this issue, we propose a unified framework to derive and evaluate biomarker combinations. Our approach is based on the concordance index for time-to-event data, which is a non-parametric measure to quantify the discriminatory power of a prediction rule. Specifically, we propose a gradient boosting algorithm that results in linear biomarker combinations that are optimal with respect to a smoothed version of the concordance index. We investigate the performance of our algorithm in a large-scale simulation study and in two molecular data sets for the prediction of survival in breast cancer patients. Our numerical results show that the new approach is not only methodologically sound but can also lead to a higher discriminatory power than traditional approaches for the derivation of gene signatures.

The role of EGF-EGFR signalling pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma inflammatory microenvironment

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and their receptor (EGFR) play an important role in the development of cancer proliferation, and metastasis, although the mechanism remains unclear. The present study aimed at investigating the role of EGF-EGFR signalling pathway in the development of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) inflammatory environment. Gene profiles of inflammatory cytokines from HCC were measured. Cell bio-behaviours of HCC with low or high metastasis were detected by the live cell monitoring system. Cell proliferation was measured by CCK8. The protein level of CXCL5 and CXCL8 was measured by ELISA. The phosphorylation of PI3K, ERK, MAPK was measured by western blot. EGF significantly induced cell proliferation in HepG2 cells, but not in HCCLM3 cells. EGF prompted the cell movement in both HepG2 and HCCLM3 and regulated the production of CXCL5 and CXCL8 from HCC, which were inhibited by EGFR inhibitor, Erk inhibitor (U0126), or PI3K inhibitors (BEZ-235 and SHBM1009). HCC proliferation, metastasis and production of inflammatory cytokines were regulated via EGF-EGFR signal pathways. CXCL5 could interact with CXCL8, possibly by CXCR2 or the cross-talk between CXCR2 and EGFR. EGF-EGFR signaling pathway can be the potential target of therapies for HCC.