The levels of proinflammatory chemokines, such as CCL2, CCL3, CCL4 and CCL5, and pro‐angiogenic chemokines, such as CXCL1, CXCL5 and CXCL8, are also elevated in human colon tumour tissues as compared to the matched normal tissues, indicating that these chemokines and their receptors play an important role in regulating colon tumour progression, angiogenesis and metastasis (Baier et al., 2005). This evidence concerns the gene CCL3 and colonic neoplasm.