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Review
Wnt Signaling and Breast Cancer
Louise R. Howe and Anthony M.C. Brown
volume 3 | issue 1
jan 2004Pages: 036-041
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Secreted signaling factors of the Wnt protein family regulate many cellular processes, including cell fate decisions and cell proliferation, and aberrant Wnt signaling is associated with tumorigenesis. Many Wnt proteins act via a signaling pathway that results in stabilization of b-catenin and consequent transcriptional activation of specific target genes. Mutations in b-catenin or other Wnt pathway components, which result in b-catenin accumulation, are found in a wide range of human cancers. In contrast, such mutations have been found only rarely in breast cancer. Nevertheless there is strong evidence of stabilization of b-catenin protein in a majority of human breast tumors. Moreover, studies in mouse model systems clearly demonstrate that activated Wnt signaling leads to mammary tumorigenesis. This review summarizes the current evidence implicating Wnt/b-catenin signaling in breast cancer and discusses several possible mechanisms by which the pathway may become activated.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDFIf the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.