CXCL12 and cancer: As listed in Figure 3, CXCR4 is a well-known CSC marker in many different cancer types, the crosstalk between CXCR4 and its ligand CXCL12 plays a crucial role in tumor development, also in CSC; it was summarized that CXCL12-CXCR4/CXCR7 axis could maintain CSCs stemness via modulating immune cell migration, recruitment of mesenchymal stem cells, formation of CAFs and vascular endothelial cells, thus, it’s a potential strategy to inhibit CSC niches via targeting CXCL12-CXCR4/CXCR7 axis [156]; some CXCR4/CXCR7 inhibitors listed in Table 5 have been evaluated in different clinical trials.