Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers in Urine: A Route towards Molecular Diagnosis and Personalized Medicine of Bladder Cancer.

Bladder cancer (BC) is characterized by high incidence and recurrence rates together with genomic instability and elevated mutation degree. Currently, cystoscopy combined with cytology is routinely used for diagnosis, prognosis and disease surveillance. Such an approach is often associated with several side effects, discomfort for the patient and high economic burden. Thus, there is an essential demand of non-invasive, sensitive, fast and inexpensive biomarkers for clinical management of BC patients. In this context, liquid biopsy represents a very promising tool that has been widely investigated over the last decade. Liquid biopsy will likely be at the basis of patient selection for precision medicine, both in terms of treatment choice and real-time monitoring of therapeutic effects. Several different urinary biomarkers have been proposed for liquid biopsy in BC, including DNA methylation and mutations, protein-based assays, non-coding RNAs and mRNA signatures. In this review, we summarized the state of the art on different available tests concerning their potential clinical applications for BC detection, prognosis, surveillance and response to therapy.

Journal of personalized medicine. 2021 Mar 23*** epublish ***

Matteo Ferro, Evelina La Civita, Antonietta Liotti, Michele Cennamo, Fabiana Tortora, Carlo Buonerba, Felice Crocetto, Giuseppe Lucarelli, Gian Maria Busetto, Francesco Del Giudice, Ottavio de Cobelli, Giuseppe Carrieri, Angelo Porreca, Amelia Cimmino, Daniela Terracciano

Department of Urology of European Institute of Oncology (IEO), IRCCS, Via Ripamonti 435, 20141 Milan, Italy., Department of Translational Medical Sciences, University of Naples "Federico II", 80131 Naples, Italy., Institute of Protein Biochemistry, National Research Council, 80131 Naples, Italy., CRTR Rare Tumors Reference Center, AOU Federico II, 80131 Naples, Italy., Department of Neurosciences, Sciences of Reproduction and Odontostomatology, University of Naples Federico II, 80131 Naples, Italy., Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, Urology, Andrology and Kidney Transplantation Unit, University of Bari, 70124 Bari, Italy., Department of Urology and Organ Transplantation, University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy., Department of Urology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy., Department of Urology, Veneto Institute of Oncology, 31033 Padua, Italy., Institute of Genetics and Biophysics, National Research Council, 80131 Naples, Italy.