title: Targeted therapies in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer according to the signaling pathways.
abstract: With 300,000 annually new cases worldwide, urothelial-cell carcinoma of the bladder (UCCB) is the second most common urologic neoplasm after prostate carcinoma. Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), which is not immediately life-threatening, represents 70% to 80% of these initial cases. Despite optimal treatment (transurethral resection with intravesical chemo- or immunotherapy), 70% of these NMIBC will recur, and 10% to 20% will progress, highlighting the need for a new therapeutic approach. Indeed, the identification of patients at high risk of disease recurrence and progression would be beneficial in predicting which patients with NMIBC would benefit from strict follow-up and which would benefit from a more aggressive therapy. To date, conventional treatment remains disappointing in terms of oncologic results and morbidity. The growing understanding in tumor biology has enabled the signaling pathways involved in bladder tumorigenesis and progression to be identified, but few molecular targets have been available until now. The encouraging results seen in various human carcinomas suggests that these new agents should become part of the arsenal of drugs available in the treatment of NMIBC, alone or in combination with already known agents. In this article, we have tried to highlight the main molecular signaling pathways involved in NMIBC tumorigenesis and progression, and the potential targets useful for improving the treatment of NMIBC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire Pellegrin, Victor Segalen School of Medicine, Bordeaux, France. herve.wallerand@chu-bordeaux.fr
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wallerand
authors.forename: Jean-Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Bernhard
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Culine
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ballanger
authors.forename: Grégoire
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ferrière
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ravaud
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D015398:Signal Transduction; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*