The landscape of genetics and biomarkers in bladder cancer

tau.amegroups.com © Translational Andrology and Urology. All rights reserved. Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) is the second most common urological malignancy and ranking among the top ten malignancies in men and women, respectively (1). At initial presentation, the majority of patients have non muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), but some patients have muscle-invasive UCB (MIBC) (2). The natural UCB history of both, NMIBC and MIBC, is highly variable and considerably depending based on treatment strategies. While some patients never experience disease recurrence, others experience disease progression and eventually decease of their disease (3). Despite significant improvements in the clinical management, technical accouterment, surgical techniques, perioperative management as well as introduction of modern drugs over the past decades, in general UCB outcomes have only marginally improved. Although NMIBC and MIBC derive from the identical epithelial lining, both UCB types show distinct differences in their biologically behavior.