Goto et al. showed that CXCR4 expression is associated with a poor prognosis in patients with ESCC [24], while Sasaki et al. showed that CXCL12 and its receptor CXCR4 correlated with nodal metastasis in submucosal ESCC [25]. Here, CXCR4 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.