Role of the Wnt pathway in thyroid cancer

Abstract

Aberrant activation of Wnt signaling is involved in the development of several epithelial tumors. Wnt signaling includes two major types of pathways: (i) the canonical or Wnt/β catenin pathway; and (ii) the non-canonical pathways, which do not involve β-catenin stabilization. Among these pathways, the Wnt/β-catenin pathway has received most atten tion during the past years for its critical role in cancer. A number of publications emphasize the role of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in thyroid cancer.This pathway plays a crucial role in development and epithelial renewal, and components such as β-catenin and Axin are often mutated in thyroid cancer. Although it is accepted that altered Wnt signaling is a late event in thyroid cell transformation that affects anaplastic thyroid tumors, recent data suggest that it is also altered in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) with RET/PTC mutations. There fore, the purpose of this review is to summarize the main relevant data of Wnt signaling in thyroid cancer, with special emphasis on the Wnt/β-catenin pathway © 2012 Sastre-Perona and Santisteban.