Wnt signaling is usually divided into two pathways: the 'canonical', acting through beta-catenin, and the 'non-canonical' acting through the Ca2+ and planar cell polarity pathway. Both pathways have been implicated in different types of cancer. Most results obtained with established cell lines have been contradictory. Here, we have investigated the expression of Wnt10B (canonical) and Wnt5A (non-canonical) in a panel of finite life-span and established normal and breast cancer cells using quantitative RT-PCR. It was found that there were both significant overexpression of Wnt5A and underexpression of Wnt10B in the metastasis-derived finite life-span breast cancer cells when they were compared to the finite life-span normal and established normal and breast tumor cells. Since expression profiles of primary breast cancer cultures are closer to the original tumor than the established cell lines, future research in this area should take into consideration these differences.