Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-17-2011

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CMAR.S18101

Abstract

Metastatic events to the bone occur frequently in numerous cancer types such as breast, prostate, lung, and renal carcinomas, melanoma, neuroblastoma, and multiple myeloma. Accumulating evidence suggests that the inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 is frequently upregulated and is implicated in the ability of cancer cells to metastasize to bone. IL-6 is able to activate various cell signaling cascades that include the STAT (signal transducer and activator of transcription) pathway, the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase) pathway, and the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathway. Activation of these pathways may explain the ability of IL-6 to mediate various aspects of normal and pathogenic bone remodeling, inflammation, cell survival, proliferation, and pro-tumorigenic effects. This review article will discuss the role of IL-6: 1) in bone metabolism, 2) in cancer metastasis to bone, 3) in cancer prognosis, and 4) as potential therapies for metastatic bone cancer.

Copyright Statement

This document was originally published in: Cancer and Management Research by Dovepress. This work is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license. Details regarding the use of this work can be found at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CMAR.S18101

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