Research Progress in Bladder Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Bladder cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies associated with high morbidity, high mortality, as well as inconvenient post-operative recurrence. Typical symptoms of bladder cancer include hematuria, frequent urination, nocturia, and dysuria. Most of the primary bladder tumors are non-muscle invasive, which do not grow in muscularis propria, and are often treated with surgery. Muscle-invasive tumors are more common in recurrent diseases, which have higher risk of metastasis. In addition, the treatments of these tumors have more serious side effects such as radical cystectomy with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The mechanisms of pathogenesis and metabolisms of bladder cancer are yet unclear. However, several genetic mutations and influences from external environment have been proven to be the risk factors for bladder cancer. Along with the developments in researches, the understanding about bladder cancer formation and treatment has been improved over the years. Further studies on medical detection through new technologies are beneficial to the diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer. This review aimed to provide a general view of some recent progresses of bladder cancer’s pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and developments on research methods.