CXCR4 and colorectal cancer: Researchers (Zheng et al., 2017) have used the CRISPR-Cas9 system in a cellular model to knock out CXCR4 and observed that colorectal cancer cell lines showed reduced adhesion to the ECM and endothelium, further demonstrating that CXCR4 is closely related to the Akt and type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF1R) signaling pathways.