title: Molecular biology and targeted therapies for urothelial carcinoma.
abstract: Metastatic urothelial cancer (UC) is associated with poor prognosis. In the first-line setting, platinum-based chemotherapy is the standard of care but resistance rapidly occurs. With no validated treatment proven to increase survival after platinum failure, there is an urgent unmet medical need to develop new and efficacious cytotoxic agents. A better understanding of the molecular signaling pathways regulating UC has led to the development of new and innovative therapeutic strategies. Despite this, many recent drugs show only modest activity as single agents, and combining them with standard chemotherapy does not seem to enhance efficacy. Ongoing research is producing, however, a generation of new drugs that are showing promising results in clinical trials. This paper aims to review the most important mechanisms in bladder cancer tumorigenesis and describe the new therapeutic options currently undergoing evaluation in clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Hôpital de Jolimont, Rue Ferrer 159, 7100 La Louvière, Belgium; Institut Roi Albert II, Service d'Oncologie Médicale, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc and Institut de Recherche Clinique et Expérimentale (Pole MIRO), Université Catholique de Louvain, Avenue Hippocrate 10, 1200 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: emmanuel.seront@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seront
authors.affiliation: Institut Roi Albert II, Service d'Oncologie Médicale, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc and Institut de Recherche Clinique et Expérimentale (Pole MIRO), Université Catholique de Louvain, Avenue Hippocrate 10, 1200 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: jean-pascal.machiels@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Jean-Pascal
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Machiels
mesh_terms: D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008967:Molecular Biology; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D015398:Signal Transduction; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
keywords: Bladder cancer; Signaling pathways; Targeted therapies; Treatment; Tumorigenesis; Urothelial carcinoma