The CXCL12/CXCR4 pathway or the autocrine proliferative loop of the glioblastoma stem cells

Despite multimodal therapy (the classical Stupp’s protocol) including surgical resection (as large as possible), radiotherapy and chemotherapy, glioblastoma (GBM) remain a burden as the global survival rate at two years reaches barely 9% of patients (1). This situation is mainly a consequence of a systematic recurrence and this recurrence is itself a consequence of various causes, acting alone or synergistically: heterogeneous nature of the disease (2), the presence of the brain-blood barrier which impedes the potentially active drugs to get into the brain (3), the lack of targeted chemotherapeutic molecules and the persistence of GBM-initiating or stem cells (GSC) (4).