Lipid metabolism dysregulation for bone metastasis and its prevention

Bone metastasis often develops in advanced malignancies. Lipid metabolic dysregulation might play pivotal role in cancer progression and subsequent deterioration of bone health at metastatic condition. In-depth understanding of lipid reprogramming in metastasized cancer cells and other stromal cells including bone marrow adipocyte (BMA) is an urgent need to develop effective therapy.

This paper emphasizes providing an overview of multifaceted role of dysregulated lipids and BMA in cancer cells in association with bone metastasis by utilizing search terms lipid metabolism, lipid and metastasis in PubMed. This study extends to address mechanism linked with lipid metabolism and various crucial genes (e.g. CSF-1, RANKL, NFkB and NFATc1) involved in bone metastasis. This review examines therapeutic strategies targeting lipid metabolism to offer potential avenues to disrupt lipid-driven metastasis.

On metastatic condition, dysregulated lipid molecules especially in BMA and other stromal cells not only favors cancer progression but also potentiate lipid reprogramming within cancer cells. Distinct dysregulated lipid-metabolism associated genes may act as biomarker, and targeting these is challenging task for specific treatment. Curbing function of bone resorption associated genes by lipid controlling drugs (e.g. statins, omega-3 FA and metformin) may provide additional support to curtail lipid-associated bone metastasis.