CXCR4– a new antiangiogenic target in colorectal carcinoma?

Introduction: The chemokine receptor CXCR4 plays a prominent role in the tumour biology of many different tumour entities, promoting angiogenesis and migration of tumour cells to metastatic sites. The impact of CXCR4 expression for tumour biology has been described in various gastrointestinal malignancies, but data on in situ expression and clinico-pathological correlations are sparse. Aims: In the present study, we filled this gap of information and evaluated CXCR4 expression in colorectal carcinoma. We correlated the CXCR4 immunoreactivity with the expression of the CXCR4 ligand CXCL12 and an ample set of clin…