WASHINGTON, DC USA (UroToday.com) - This process begins with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, which downstages bladder cancer in 40% and improves survival in their series.
Thus, Dr. Dinney feels that we should seek to improve staging by understanding biology. There is a lot of heterogeneity, and in using arrays, they found evidence of an epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype. Overexpression of the micro-RNA mir-200 correlates with EMT and portends a poor prognosis. This is an example of personalized understanding and treatment decisions. This type of understanding will identify those who are at high-risk and need chemotherapy vs. a low-risk cohort who perhaps may not need it. Low-risk patients can receive a novel agent and their tissue can be studied for markers of response to move into phase III. The ability to identify signatures that predict response to specific therapy will help to develop personalized therapies.
Presented by Colin Dinney, MD at the Society for Basic Urologic Research (SBUR)/Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) joint meeting during the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting - May 14 - 19, 2011 - Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC USA
Reported for UroToday by Christopher P. Evans, MD, FACS, Professor and Chairman, Department of Urology, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.
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