Finally, gene expression profiling in two sets of CAFs after CXCR4 knockdown revealed significant alterations in the transcriptional profile (Supplementary file 3), including reduced expression of IL8 and other secreted ligands that are known to be tumor microenvironmental regulators (Matsuo et al., 2009; Fang et al., 2016) (Figure 2H). This evidence concerns the gene CXCR4 and neoplasm.