CXCR4 and neoplasm: To determine the relationship between Notch1 and CXCR4 in GBMs, firstly, we detected the expression of CXCR4 proteins in glioma tissues by immunohistochemical staining and western bloting, the results demonstrated that CXCR4 are incresingly expressed in gliomas according to tumor grades and the highest expression levels were detected in GBMs (Additional file 1: Figure S1a and c).