[Muscle-invasive and metastatic urothelial carcinoma from a pathological point of view]

Muscle-invasive and metastatic urothelial carcinoma is a heterogeneous disease with a broad morphological and molecular spectrum. The amendment of the WHO classification has resulted in some changes in the nomenclature and classification of muscle-invasive and metastatic urothelial carcinomas. Due to the increasing individualisation of therapeutic options, the correct diagnosis of morphological variants of urothelial carcinoma, which are associated with specific molecular alterations, is becoming more and more important. The morphological variants also correlate with molecular subtypes of urothelial carcinoma. In addition, both morphological and molecular subtypes are associated with immunological and other molecular characteristics that could be relevant for modern immunotherapies or antibody-drug conjugates, e.g. in the form of PD-L1 and NECTIN-4 status. With the pending approval of erdafitinib (FGFR3 inhibitor), molecular tumour boards for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma will also become more important in the future.