Drug Design, Development and Therapy (Oct 2016)
Molecular targets in urothelial cancer: detection, treatment, and animal models of bladder cancer
Abstract
Dmitriy Smolensky,1,2 Kusum Rathore,1 Maria Cekanova1,2 1Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, 2UT-ORNL Graduate School of Genome Science and Technology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA Abstract: Bladder cancer remains one of the most expensive cancers to treat in the United States due to the length of required treatment and degree of recurrence. In order to treat bladder cancer more effectively, targeted therapies are being investigated. In order to use targeted therapy in a patient, it is important to provide a genetic background of the patient. Recent advances in genome sequencing, as well as transcriptome analysis, have identified major pathway components altered in bladder cancer. The purpose of this review is to provide a broad background on bladder cancer, including its causes, diagnosis, stages, treatments, animal models, as well as signaling pathways in bladder cancer. The major focus is given to the PI3K/AKT pathway, p53/pRb signaling pathways, and the histone modification machinery. Because several promising immunological therapies are also emerging in the treatment of bladder cancer, focus is also given on general activation of the immune system for the treatment of bladder cancer. Keywords: bladder cancer, transitional cell carcinoma, signaling pathways, clinical trials
