CXCR4 has been implicated in tumour metastasis in several tumour models including melanoma (Neagu et al., 2015), prostate (Lee et al., 2014) and neuroblastoma metastasis (Mühlethaler‐Mottet et al., 2015) and has been suggested as a biomarker for HNSCC with high metastatic potential (Albert et al., 2013). Here, CXCR4 is linked to neoplasm.