Abstract

Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is unique among epithelial carcinomas in its divergent pathways of tumorigenesis. Low-grade papillary tumours rarely become muscle-invasive and they frequently harbour gene mutations that constitutively activate the receptor tyrosine kinase–Ras pathway. By contrast, most high-grade invasive tumours progress to life-threatening metastases and have defects in the p53 and the retinoblastoma protein pathways. Correcting pathway-specific defects represents an attractive strategy for the molecular therapy of urothelial carcinomas.

Author affiliations

1. Departments of Urology and Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA.
   Email: xue-ru.wu@med.nyu.edu

Published online 19 August 2005

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