Targeted therapeutic interventions for cancers colonized in bone

Abstract

Bone is a fertile soil in which bone-stored growth factors are continuously released into bone marrow as a consequence of osteoclastic bone resorption that takes place as an initial step of bone remodeling. This fertile bone microenvironment facilitates cancer cell survival and proliferation in bone. Cancer cells in turn influence bone microenvironment by producing varieties of cytokines which affect the proliferation and differentiation of bone cells including osteoclasts and osteoblasts. Disruption of this vicious cycle between cancer cells and bone will lead the development of novel selective mechanism-based therapeutic interventions for bone-colonized cancers.