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

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.