CXCL12 and breast carcinoma: The interaction of CXC chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) with its ligand CXC motif ligand 12 (CXCL12) plays important roles in maintaining CSCs properties in tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cells (Dubrovska et al., 2012), nasopharyngeal CSCs (Tian et al., 2017), esophageal CSCs (Wang et al., 2017b), and stimulates the angiogenesis in vascular endothelial cells through upregulation of the MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT and Wnt/β-catenin pathways.