CXCR4 and hepatocellular carcinoma: The CXCL12/CXCR4/PI3K/AKT axis is involved in the pathogenesis of several malignancies, such as adamantinomatous craniopharyngiomas, breast cancer (BCa), neuroblastoma, pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia, medullary thyroid cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), colorectal cancer (CRC), and glioblastoma (GB), via activation of different downstream signaling pathways, inducing tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion (Carmo et al., 2010; Yin et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2020; Hjazi et al., 2023; Yang et al., 2023).