The chemokine receptor CXCR4 has been found to be highly expressed in a wide variety of cancer types, including breast, colorectal, melanoma, nasopharyngeal, oesophageal, osteosarcoma, and nonsmall-cell lung carcinoma. It has been shown that these elevated expression levels are yet further increased upon metastasis. This receptor therefore represents a highly attractive target which could facilitate the diagnostic imaging of many aggressive cancers. Since 2005, there have been a wide assortment of CXCR4-targeting imaging probes spanning both nuclear (PET/SPECT) and optical imaging modalities. This review highlights a wide variety of pertinent examples from the recent literature, placing special focus on the chemical aspects of probe design. James C: Knight Dr James C. Knight obtained a BSc in chemistry from Cardiff University in 2005 and subsequently a PhD in 2009 under the supervision of Dr Angelo J. Amoroso and Prof. Peter G. Edwards. He subsequently spent two years working between the Cardiff School of Biosciences and Chemistry departments developing multimodal imaging agents under the supervision of