RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays a key role in osteosarcoma tumorigenesis and bone remodeling, and its roles in angiogenesis and immune surveillance are the two key mechanisms of metastatic dissemination. OBJECTIVE: To review the role of Wnt/β-catenin pathway in the occurrence and development of osteosarcoma and its regulatory role in specific microenvironment. METHODS: PubMed database was searched for relevant articles on the relationship between Wnt/β-catenin pathway and bone tumors using the search terms of “Wnt/β-catenin; bone tumors.” The search time for publications was from 2000 to 2020. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The typical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays an important role in the growth and metastasis of osteosarcoma by directly acting on osteosarcoma cells and indirectly regulating cell activity in osteosarcoma. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway also participates in the hijacking of the bone tumor microenvironment by osteosarcoma cells, promotes the regulation of extracellular matrix, makes the tumor cells invasive, induces immune tolerance and angiogenesis in tumor cells, and eventually augments metastatic spread. In addition, the typical Wnt signaling pathway abnormally activated in osteosarcoma cells seems to be closely related to cell proliferation, induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-like processes, acquisition of osteosarcoma-promoting tumor cell stem cell characteristics, and metastatic spread.