title: Noncanonical Wnt signaling in tumor progression and metastasis.
abstract: For almost 15 years, the concept that noncanonical (beta-catenin-independent) Wnt signaling pathways play key roles in embryonic development has grown steadily in the scientific literature. Significant progress has been made toward understanding how these pathways regulate morphogenetic processes as diverse as gastrulation cell movements and the formation of cilia. More recently, however, data have implicated components of noncanonical Wnt/Ca(2+) and Wnt/planar cell polarity signaling in directly promoting the invasiveness and malignant progression of diverse forms of human cancer. Here I review this emerging field of cancer research using data from developmental model systems to provide a framework for addressing future questions.
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, USA. jason.r.jessen@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: Jason R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Jessen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D051153:Wnt Proteins