Molecular markers for bladder cancer: the road to a multimarker approach

Abstract

Bladder cancer is the seventh most common malignancy worldwide, with almost 14,000 patients dying from this disease in the USA alone. Because of the need for long-term and frequent follow-up, as well as the paucity of sensitive and specific noninvasive tests, bladder cancer management has the highest cost per patient among all cancer types. Several molecular markers, especially members of the cell cycle regulation and apoptosis pathways, have been investigated. However, no individual marker has been prognostically powerful enough to change clinical management. The combined analysis of a panel of markers spanning different pathways is the most promising approach. We give an overview of the most important molecular markers functioning in crucial pathways and focus on their role in multimarker analysis.

Keywords::

• apoptosis
• marker panel
• multimarker analysis
• p53
• protein expression
• retinoblastoma
• urothelial carcinoma

Acknowledgement

Studies described in this review were supported in part by National Institutes of Health Grants CA-70903, CA-14089, CA-86871 and CA-103455, and National Cancer Institute Grant CA-71921.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no 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. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.