RUDN Journal of Medicine (Dec 2018)
A MODERN VIEW ON THE PROBLEM OF TREATMENT OF UROTHELIAL CANCER
Abstract
Urothelial cancer (UC) is one of the leading onco-urological diseases. The lack of clinical manifestations of the disease at earlier stages does not allow assigning an adequate therapy in good time. Currently they extensively use conventional methods of treatment, which are constantly improving. Nevertheless, such methods are not always sufficiently effective: they neither always avert recurring, nor ensure sufficient remission and longevity of a patient. Identification of new trends in the early diagnostics of not only cancers but also pre-cancers plays an important role in forming conceptually new approaches to medical treatments. Molecular genetic features of UC have shown a significant chromosomal mutational variability, the dependence of genetic variations on the tumor invasion level, as well as its high level of immunizing power. Successes achieved in understanding the processes taking place not only in the tumor microenvironment but also in tumors have enabled creating fundamentally new anticancer drugs and achieving a significant progress in treating UC. This article presents a new classification of UCs based on immune histochemical data and molecular genetic characteristics of tumors, presents a cluster analysis of various types of UCs, recites present-day data on the disease incidence, analyses up-to-date conventional and innovative methods of UC treatment including non-specific and specific immunotherapy, describes the underlying mechanisms preventing tumors to evade immune surveillance, shows the role of immune checkpoints and their inhibitors, target and cytokine therapies, tumor vaccines, cell-based therapies, combined and integral methods of noninvasive and metastatic UC, as well as describes the results of clinical trials when using various methods of tumor treatments.
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