The relationship between immune and inflammatory responses in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has garnered significant interest. In the peripheral blood and tumour microenvironment (TME), neutrophils, which are innate immune cells, crucially respond to various inflammatory factors, leading to tumour progression. To some extent, they affect the clinical treatment strategy and survival among HCC patients. A high circulating neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is a reliable factor that can be used to predict poor outcomes in HCC patients. However, the mechanisms underlying the protumoural effects of circulating neutrophils remain poorly understood. Besides, the distinct role and function of neutrophils at the site of HCC remain relatively unclear, which is partially attributed to their substantial heterogeneity compared with other immune cells. In this review, we firstly discuss the current information available, detailing distinct subsets, functional phenotypes, and the impact of circulating and tumour-infiltrating neutrophils on tumourigenesis in HCC. Furthermore, we describe recent pre-clinical and clinical studies concerning neutrophils for evaluating the feasibility of targeting diverse protumoural aspects to improve therapeutic efficacy, thus paving the way for neutrophil-based treatment, especially in combination with immunotherapy.

肝细胞癌（HCC）中免疫和炎症反应之间的关系引起了人们的极大兴趣。在外周血和肿瘤微环境 (TME) 中，作为先天免疫细胞的中性粒细胞对各种炎症因子产生关键反应，从而导致肿瘤进展。它们在一定程度上影响HCC患者的临床治疗策略和生存期。高循环中性粒细胞与淋巴细胞的比率是可用于预测 HCC 患者不良预后的可靠因素。然而，循环中性粒细胞促肿瘤作用的潜在机制仍然知之甚少。此外，中性粒细胞在 HCC 部位的独特作用和功能仍相对不清楚，这部分归因于它们与其他免疫细胞相比具有显着的异质性。在这篇综述中，我们首先讨论了现有的信息，详细介绍了不同的亚群、功能表型以及循环和肿瘤浸润中性粒细胞对 HCC 肿瘤发生的影响。此外，我们描述了最近关于嗜中性粒细胞的临床前和临床研究，以评估针对不同促肿瘤方面以提高治疗效果的可行性，从而为基于嗜中性粒细胞的治疗铺平道路，特别是与免疫疗法相结合。