Recent studies have shown that CXCL12 improves cell invasion potential of HCC cells and CXCR4 overexpression is associated with aggressive characteristics and poor prognosis of HCC, while inhibition of CXCR4 activity via CXCR4 knockdown, AMD3100 or neutralizing antibody administration suppresses tumorigenesis of hepatoma cells in vitro and in vivo (Liu H. et al., 2015; Lu et al., 2015). The gene discussed is CXCL12; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.