Potential Therapeutic Targets for Bone Metastasis

The mortality and morbidity caused by cancer is largely a result of distant spread of the disease. Certain malignancies have a particular propensity to spread to bone amongst which are the three most common cancers — lung, breast and prostate. Patients with lung cancer are more likely to succumb quickly to their disease than those with breast or prostate tumors in whom, relatively, bone metastases are more of a problem. Patients with advanced breast and prostate cancers usually develop bone metastases and tend to harbour the bulk of their tumor burden in their bones at the time of death. The concepts and data reviewed in this chapter relate mainly to these malignancies although some are also relevant to bone metastases secondary to multiple myeloma.