PLoS ONE (Jan 2019)
Molecular characterization of low grade and high grade bladder cancer.
Abstract
BackgroundBladder cancer (BC) is the 9th most common cancer diagnosis worldwide. Low grade (LG) represents 70% of all BCs, characterized by recurrence and rare ability (10-15%) to progress to high grade (HG) and invade. The remaining 30% is high grade (HG), fast invasive BC, which is resistant to therapy. Identifying biomarkers for predicting those tumors able to progress is a key goal for patient outcome improvement. This study focuses on the most promising prognostic markers.Materials and methodsTP53 and FGFR3 mutational status, Survivin, CK19, CK20, E-cadherin and CD44 gene expression analysis were performed on 66 BCs.ResultsSurvivin was found associated to tumor grade (pConclusionWe suggest Survivin, both as a biomarker associated to G3 BCs but negatively related to TP53 mutational status, and as a potential novel therapeutic target.