Bladder Cancer Diagnosis and Follow-Up: The Current Status and Possible Role of Extracellular Vesicles

• Main Authors: Eline Oeyen, Lucien Hoekx, Stefan De Wachter, Marcella Baldewijns, Filip Ameye, Inge Mertens
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-02-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: extracellular vesicles; bladder cancer; biomarkers; urine
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/4/821

Diagnostic methods currently used for bladder cancer are cystoscopy and urine cytology. Cystoscopy is an invasive tool and has low sensitivity for carcinoma in situ. Urine cytology is non-invasive, is a low-cost method, and has a high specificity but low sensitivity for low-grade urothelial tumors. Despite the search for urinary biomarkers for the early and non-invasive detection of bladder cancer, no biomarkers are used at the present in daily clinical practice. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been recently studied as a promising source of biomarkers because of their role in intercellular communication and tumor progression. In this review, we give an overview of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved urine tests to detect bladder cancer and why their use is not widespread in clinical practice. We also include non-FDA approved urinary biomarkers in this review. We describe the role of EVs in bladder cancer and their possible role as biomarkers for the diagnosis and follow-up of bladder cancer patients. We review recently discovered EV-derived biomarkers for the diagnosis of bladder cancer.