International Journal of Molecular Sciences

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Dear Colleagues,

Bladder cancer is the most common cancer of the urinary tract and ranks fifth among cancers in men in Western countries. Early diagnosis of bladder cancer is mainly based on cystoscopy after gross hematuria. Based on urine or urinary cells, only a few molecular markers have been approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) so far. Urine soluble markers should be able to ensure primary diagnosis, follow-up control, and screening of high-risk populations. In addition, these markers are designated merely as supporting tools for monitoring bladder cancer patients instead of replacing cystoscopy. New biomarkers in serum and urine including nucleic acid or protein-based tissue biomarkers have been described. However, not only the diagnosis but also the prognosis or further prediction of this very common disease is important to know. To say it in Arthur Rimbaud’s words, the vision of new scientific reports should be illuminated in this Special Issue with a focus on “Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Predictive Biological Markers in Bladder Cancer—Illumination of a Vision.”

We warmly welcome submissions, including original papers and reviews, on this widely-discussed topic.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Otto

Dr. Thorsten Ecke

Dr. Florence Le Calvez-Kelm
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

urinary biomarkers on bladder cancer
serum/plasma biomarkers
tissue biomarkers (nucleic acid/protein-based)
epigenetic markers
prognostic factors
predictive factors
multivariate models

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 184 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Evaluating the Utility of Combined Bladder Cancer Biomarkers, the Molecular Prognostication of Tumor Subtypes, or What Else Is Needed to Illuminate Our Vision?

by Thorsten H. Ecke, Thomas Otto and Florence Le Calvez-Kelm

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(24), 9657; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21249657 - 18 Dec 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1349

Abstract

In the last few years, we published two special issues devoted to highlighting important scientific results in the field of bladder cancer research and clinical implications [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diagnostic, Prognostic and Predictive Biological Markers in Bladder Cancer – Illumination of a Vision 3.0)

Research

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16 pages, 3514 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Therapeutic Targets in Histological Subtypes of Bladder Cancer

by Sophie Wucherpfennig, Michael Rose, Angela Maurer, Maria Angela Cassataro, Lancelot Seillier, Ronja Morsch, Ehab Hammad, Philipp Heinrich Baldia, Thorsten H. Ecke, Thomas-Alexander Vögeli, Ruth Knüchel and Nadine T. Gaisa

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(21), 11547; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms222111547 - 26 Oct 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3189

Abstract

Histologically, bladder cancer is a heterogeneous group comprising urothelial carcinoma (UC), squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinomas (ACs), urachal carcinomas (UrCs), and small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas (SCCs). However, all bladder cancers have been treated so far uniformly, and targeted therapy options are still limited. Thus, we aimed to determine the protein expression/molecular status of commonly used cancer targets (programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1), mismatch repair (MMR), androgen and estrogen receptors (AR/ER), Nectin-4, tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2 (Tacstd2, Trop-2), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3)) to give first insights into whether patients with SCC, AC/UrCs, and squamous-differentiated carcinomas (Sq-BLCA) of the bladder could be eligible for targeted therapies. In addition, for MMR-deficient tumors, microsatellite instability was analyzed. We completed our own data with molecular data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We present ratios for each drug and cumulative ratios for multiple therapeutic options for each nonurothelial subtype. For example, 58.9% of SCC patients, 33.5% of AC/UrCs patients, and 79.3% of Sq-BLCA patients would be eligible for at least one of the analyzed targets. In conclusion, our findings hold promise for targeted therapeutic approaches in selected patients in the future, as various drugs could be applied according to the biomarker status. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diagnostic, Prognostic and Predictive Biological Markers in Bladder Cancer – Illumination of a Vision 3.0)

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