Wnt signaling pathway: Implications for therapy in lung cancer and bone metastasis

• Aberrant activation of Wnt pathway is closely associated with lung cancer.
• The Wnt pathway also plays an important role in lung cancer induced bone metastasis.
• The Wnt pathway can be targeted for therapy at multiple levels.

Lung cancer remains a major worldwide health problem and patients have high rate of metastasis including bone. Although pathologic characteristics of this disease are clear and well established, much remains to be understood about this tumor, particularly at the molecular signaling level. Secreted signaling molecules of the Wnt family have been widely investigated and found to play a prominent role to induce human malignant diseases, such as breast and prostate cancer. A variety of studies have also demonstrated that the Wnt signaling pathway is closely associated with bone malignancies including osteosarcoma, multiple myeloma, and breast or prostate cancer induced bone metastasis. The aim of this review is to provide a summary regarding the role of the Wnt signaling pathway in lung cancer and bone metastasis, highlighting the aberrant activation of Wnt in this malignancy. We also discuss the potential therapeutic applications for the treatment of lung cancer and cancer induced bone metastasis targeting the Wnt pathway.