Cell surface differentiation antigens of normal urothelium and bladder tumors

Bladder cancer ranks as the third most common malignancy among men and tenth among women. Superficial transitional cell carcinomas (stage Ta, Tis, and T1) account for approximately 70-80% of these tumors, while the remaining 20-30% are invasive (T2, T3, and T4). Approximately 70% of superficial tumors will have one or more recurrences, with 25% of these expressing a higher histologic grade and 10-15% subsequently developing invasive and/or metastatic disease. The detection and prediction of tumor recurrence and/or tumor progression is crucially important if timely and appropriate therapy is to be instituted. Conventional histopathologic evaluation usually provides definitive diagnosis upon which therapeutic planning is based. However, at present there are no more reliable morphologic indicator to identify which individuals will have recurrent disease or who will progress to invasive and/or metastatic cancer. Recent advances in tumor biology have identified markers that are good candidates for clinical applications in early tumor detection, as well as for the stratification of patients with like-appearing morphological lesions with different biological and clinical behavior. The ultimate goal is to develop predictive assays that would segregate patients with high probability of failures versus patients who would be cured by localized modes of therapy.