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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 May 22.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Cancer. 2011 Jul 22;11(8):573–587. doi: 10.1038/nrc3078

Table 1.

Chemokines and growth factors involved in chemotaxis in cancer

Chemokine or growth factor Chemokine receptor or growth factor receptor Experimental evidence for chemotaxis in cancer Types of cancer affected
CXCL12 (also known as SDF1) CXCR4

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • In vivo invasion assay

  • In vivo recruitment of bone marrow-derived cells

 Breast, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic, colorectal, renal and gastric cancers, melanoma, NSCLC, rhabdomyosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma
CCL19 and CCL21 CCR7 Transwell assay (Boyden chamber) Breast, cervical and lung cancers, leukaemia and squamous cell carcinoma
CCL22 CCR4

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • In vivo recruitment of T cells and other immune cells

 Breast, ovarian and gastric cancers and leukaemia
CX3CL1 (also known as fractalkine) CX3CR1

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • In vivo recruitment of NK cells and other immune cells

 Pancreatic, prostate and lung cancers and neuroblastoma
CCL5 (also known as RANTES), CCL2 (also known as MCP1), CCL3 (also known as MIP1α) and CCL7 (also known as MCP3) CCR1

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • In vivo recruitment of T cells and other immune cells

 Colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma and melanoma
CCL25 CCR9 Transwell assay (Boyden chamber) Melanoma and leukaemia
CXCL1, CXCL5, CXCL6 and CXCL8 CXCR1 and CXCR2

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • Wound-healing assay

 Colorectal, head and neck and prostate cancers, melanoma and leukaemia
EGF, TGFα, betacellulin, HBEGF, amphiregulin and heregulin (also known as NRG1) EGFR (also known as ERBB1), ERBB2 (also known as HER2), ERBB3 and ERBB4

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • Pipette-following

  • Dunn chamber

  • 3D invasion

  • In vivo invasion

  • Intravital imaging

 Breast, lung, colorectal and gastric cancers, glioblastoma, mesothelioma and neurofibromatosis
FGF FGFR1–4

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • Wound-healing assay

 Breast, ovarian, pancreatic and renal cancers, glioblastoma and Ewing’s sarcoma
PDGF PDGFR

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • 3D culture

  • In vivo recruitment of pericytes

 Breast cancer, glioblastoma, mesolthelioma and melanoma
TGFβ TGFβR1 and TGFβR2

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • Dunn chamber

  • Wound-healing assay

  • Intravital imaging

 Breast, lung, squamous cell and oesophageal cancers
IGF1 IGF1R

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • Wound-healing assay

 Breast cancer, sarcoma, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, choriocarcinoma, mesothelioma and melanoma
CSF1 (also known as MCSF) CSF1R

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • Dunn chamber

  • 3D invasion

  • In vivo invasion

  • Intravital imaging

 Breast, ovarian, endometrial, prostate and gastric cancers and leukaemia
VEGFA and VEGFC VEGFR1–3

  • Transwell assay (Boyden chamber)

  • 3D culture

 Melanoma, prostate cancer, sarcoma, meningioma and leukaemia

For a more comprehensive version of this table, with information on therapeutic compounds in development for the above factors, as well as references, see Supplementary information S1 (table). 3D, three-dimensional; CSF1, colony-stimulating factor 1; CSF1R, CSF1 receptor; EGF, epidermal growth factor; EGFR, EGF receptor; FGF, fibroblast growth factor; FGFR, FGF receptor; HBEGF, heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor; IGF1, insulin-like growth factor 1; IGF1R, IGF1 receptor; MCP, monocyte chemoattractant protein; MIP1, macrophage inflammatory protein 1; NK, natural killer; NSCLC, non-small-cell lung cancer; PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor; PDGFR, PDGF receptor; TGF, transforming growth factor; TGFβR, TGFβ receptor; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; VEGFR, VEGF receptor.