title: Targeting RANK/RANKL in the treatment of solid tumours and myeloma.
abstract: Cancers which damage the human skeleton include multiple myeloma, where the primary tumour colonises bone directly, or breast and prostate cancer, where malignant cells travel from the primary tumour to form clonal outgrowths within the bone. Owing to the interaction of tumour cells with those normally found in the bone microenvironment, such as osteoclasts and osteoblasts, these cancers affect the closely linked processes of bone formation and resorption. As a result, these twin processes contribute to the clinical manifestations of cancer metastasis, including bone pain and pathological fractures. A critical component of physiologically normal bone remodelling, the RANK/RANKL/OPG pathway, has been implicated in the formation of osteolytic, and possibly osteoblastic, lesions, which characterise the bone disease associated with these malignancies. In these cancers that affect the skeleton in this way the abnormally regulated RANK/RANKL system appears to be the final effector pathway. As a result, there has been much research focused upon targeting these molecules using OPG constructs, peptidomimetics, soluble receptor constructs and antibodies to RANKL, in pre-clinical studies. The success of these studies has paved the way for a clinical programme, the success of which is likely to lead to a new therapeutic approach to treating cancers that develop in the skeleton.
authors.affiliation: Bone Biology Group, Department of Human Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. c.buckle@shef.ac.uk
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Buckle
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Neville-Webbe
authors.forename: P I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Croucher
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lawson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001862:Bone Resorption / Q000503:physiopathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D053244:Osteoprotegerin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D053245:RANK Ligand / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism*; D053246:Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor-kappa B / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D053221:TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D053244:Osteoprotegerin; D053245:RANK Ligand; D053246:Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor-kappa B; D053221:TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand