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World J Gastroenterol. Nov 14, 2018; 24(42): 4738-4749
Published online Nov 14, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i42.4738
CXC family of chemokines as prognostic or predictive biomarkers and possible drug targets in colorectal cancer
Sara Cabrero-de las Heras, Eva Martínez-Balibrea
Sara Cabrero-de las Heras, Program Against Cancer Therapeutic Resistance (ProCURE), Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), Germans Trias i Pujol health research institute (IGTP), Badalona, Barcelona 08916, Catalunya, Spain
Sara Cabrero-de las Heras, Program of Predictive and Personalized Cancer Medicine (PMPPC), Germans Trias i Pujol health research institute (IGTP), Badalona, Barcelona 08916, Catalunya, Spain
Author contributions: Both authors contributed equally to the conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and approval of the final version.
Supported by the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), No. PI16/01800 and PIE16/00011 (Co-funded by European Regional Development Fund "A way to make Europe").
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Eva Martinez-Balibrea, PhD, Senior Scientist, Program Against Cancer Therapeutic Resistance (ProCURE), Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), Germans Trias i Pujol health research institute (IGTP), Carretera de Can Ruti, camí de les escoles s/n, Badalona, Barcelona 08916, Catalunya, Spain. embalibrea@iconcologia.net
Received: July 5, 2018
Peer-review started: July 5, 2018
First decision: August 25, 2018
Revised: September 27, 2018
Accepted: October 16, 2018
Article in press: October 16, 2018
Published online: November 14, 2018
Processing time: 131 Days and 11.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The contribution of the immune system to the development and progression of cancer is now fully acknowledged. The specific action of the immune system depends on the type of immune cells that are recruited to the tumor sites. Chemokines from the CXC subfamily are released by tumor cells and cells within the tumor microenvironment, whereupon they attract cells with anti-tumor (e.g., CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ lymphocytes) or pro-tumor activity (e.g., myeloid-derived suppressor cells). Chemokines have been proposed as prognostic factors, as biomarkers of response to therapy and as drug targets. The present review addresses the most recent findings in the field.