Wnt Signaling in Breast Cancer: Biological Mechanisms, Challenges and Opportunities

Overview

Journal Mol Cancer

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Molecular Biology
Oncology

Date 2020 Nov 25

PMID 33234169

Citations 202

Authors

Xiufang Xu

Miaofeng Zhang

Faying Xu

Shaojie Jiang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Wnt signaling is a highly conserved signaling pathway that plays a critical role in controlling embryonic and organ development, as well as cancer progression. Genome-wide sequencing and gene expression profile analyses have demonstrated that Wnt signaling is involved mainly in the processes of breast cancer proliferation and metastasis. The most recent studies have indicated that Wnt signaling is also crucial in breast cancer immune microenvironment regulation, stemness maintenance, therapeutic resistance, phenotype shaping, etc. Wnt/β-Catenin, Wnt-planar cell polarity (PCP), and Wnt-Ca signaling are three well-established Wnt signaling pathways that share overlapping components and play different roles in breast cancer progression. In this review, we summarize the main findings concerning the relationship between Wnt signaling and breast cancer and provide an overview of existing mechanisms, challenges, and potential opportunities for advancing the therapy and diagnosis of breast cancer.

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