[Prognostic factors in urothelial carcinoma]

Intense efforts are being made to identify prognostic markers in superficial and muscle invasive bladder cancer in order to get more detailed information on the biological properties of urothelial cancer. Tumor associated antigens, angiogenetic factors and their inhibitors, cell adhesion molecules, cell cycle regulating genes and proteins, oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes are subjects of clinical investigations. This article provides a contemporary review of prognostic factors in bladder cancer and their possible clinical implication. A better characterization of urothelial cancer can be anticipated from new technologies allowing analysis of multiple genes or gene products in an automated one-step procedure.