CXCL12 catches T-ALL at the entrance of the bone marrow

A fraction of patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (T-ALLs) relapse and have a dismal prognosis. Two recent papers in Cancer Cell reveal that endothelial cell-derived CXCL12 is essential for bone marrow involvement and tumor progression in T-ALL patients, suggesting that this chemokine axis presents a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of T-ALL.