Urothelial tumorigenesis: a tale of divergent pathways.
Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is unique among epithelial carcinomas in its divergent pathways of tumorigenesis. Low-grade papillary tumours rarely become muscle-invasive and they frequently harbour gene mutations that constitutively activate the receptor tyrosine kinase-Ras pathway. By contrast, most high-grade invasive tumours progress to life-threatening metastases and have defects in the p53 and the retinoblastoma protein pathways. Correcting pathway-specific defects represents an attractive strategy for the molecular therapy of urothelial carcinomas.
Wu
Xue-Ru
XR
Department of Urology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA. xue-ru.wu@med.nyu.edu
D000818:Animals; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics*; D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D016161:Genes, Retinoblastoma; D011905:Genes, ras; D006801:Humans; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D019459:Urothelium / Q000473:pathology*
D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53