CXCR4 and lung carcinoma: A study showed that IL-24 inhibited the expression of the transcription factor GLI1, which is overexpressed in lung cancer cells, by inhibiting the Akt-mTOR and SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling axes, thereby inducing DNA damage in lung cancer cells and leading to cell death, however, the protein expression of GLI1 in normal cells did not change significantly [7].