Abstract
Bladder cancers comprise heterogeneous cell populations, and numerous factors are likely to be involved in dictating recurrence, progression and patient survival. While several molecular markers that are used to evaluate the development and prognosis of bladder cancer have been studied, the limited value of these established markers has created the need for new molecular indicators of bladder cancer prognosis. Of particular interest is the silencing of tumor-suppressor genes by epigenetic alteration. Recent progress in understanding epigenetic modification and gene silencing has led to new opportunities for the understanding, detection, treatment and prevention of cancer. Moreover, epigenetic silencing of tumor-suppressor genes is interesting from a clinical standpoint, because of the possibility of reversing epigenetic changes and restoring gene function in a cell. This review focuses on the prognostic relevance of epigenetic markers in bladder cancer.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (PT-ERC). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.