title: Bladder cancer--the neglected tumor: a descriptive analysis of publications referenced in MEDLINE and data from the register ClinicalTrials.gov.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Uro-oncological neoplasms have both a high incidence and mortality rate and are therefore a major public health problem. The aim of this study was to evaluate research activity in uro-oncology over the last decade.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched MEDLINE and ClinicalTrials.gov systematically for studies on prostatic, urinary bladder, kidney, and testicular neoplasms. The increase in newly published reports per year was analyzed using linear regression. The results are presented with 95% confidence intervals, and a p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of new publications per year increased significantly for prostatic, kidney and urinary bladder neoplasms (all <0.0001). We identified 1,885 randomized controlled trials (RCTs); also for RCTs, the number of newly published reports increased significantly for prostatic (p = 0.001) and kidney cancer (p = 0.005), but not for bladder (p = 0.09) or testicular (p = 0.44) neoplasms. We identified 3,114 registered uro-oncological studies in ClinicalTrials.gov. However, 85% of these studies are focusing on prostatic (45%) and kidney neoplasms (40%), whereas only 11% were registered for bladder cancers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While the number of publications on uro-oncologic research rises yearly for prostatic and kidney neoplasms, urothelial carcinomas of the bladder seem to be neglected despite their important clinical role. Clinical research on neoplasms of the urothelial bladder must be explicitly addressed and supported.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University Hospital Erlangen, Krankenhausstr, 12, 91054 Erlangen Germany. frank.kunath@uk-erlangen.de.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kunath
authors.forename: Steffen F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wullich
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Goebell
authors.forename: Dirk G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Engehausen
authors.forename: Maximilian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burger
authors.forename: Joerg J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Meerpohl
authors.forename: Bastian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Keck
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016239:MEDLINE / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*