[Bone metastasis from prostate cancer]

Bone metastases are often observed in patients with lung cancer, kidney cancer, breast cancer, myeloma, and prostate cancer. Bone metastases from prostate cancer often show characteristics different from those that originated from other organs : For instance, bone is often the only target organ for prostate cancer metastases, and bone metastatic lesions from prostate cancer are more osteoblastic than osteolytic. It is thought that metastatic prostate cancer cells interact specifically with osseous tissue and that this tissue-specific interaction is a critical factor in cancer progression. An understanding of bone metastasis in prostate cancer may lead to novel treatments against the disease. Here, we present the mechanisms that underlie osteoblastic bone metastasis of prostatic origin.