Role of αVβ3 in Prostate Cancer: Metastasis Initiator and Important Therapeutic Target

In prostate cancer, distant organ metastasis is the leading cause of patient death. Although the mechanism of malignant tumor metastasis is unclear, studies have confirmed that integrin alpha V beta 3 plays an important role in this process. In prostate cancer, alpha V beta 3 mediates adhesion, invasion, immune escape and neovascularization through interactions with differ-ent ligands. Among these ligands and in addition to proteins that are directly related to tumor invasion, other proteins that contain the RGD structure could also bind to alpha V beta 3 and cause a number of biological effects. In this article, we summarized the ligand and downstream proteins related to alpha V beta 3-mediated prostate cancer metastasis as well as some diagnostic and therapeutic measures targeting alpha V beta 3.