Research Progress of New Urine Markers in the Diagnosis of Bladder Cancer

Abstract

Bladder cancer is the tenth most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide and poses a great threat to human health. It has a high recurrence rate and requires long-term close monitoring and follow-up after surgery. At present, the most reliable method for the clinical diagnosis of bladder cancer is still cystoscopy and urine exfoliative cytology. However, cystoscopy is an invasive examination, which is often accompanied by complications such as infection, bleeding, pain and discomfort, and is cost ineffective. At the same time, the sensitivity of urine cytology for low-grade tumors is low, and the subjective factors of the examiners have a great impact on the test results. Urinary biomarkers have the advantages of non-invasive, safe, and simple detection, possessing clinical diagnostic value. At present, it has been found that many urine markers show higher sensitivity than urine exfoliative cytology in the detection of bladder cancer, but due to their poor specificity, they are not widely used in clinical practice. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find novel noninvasive and reliable method for the diagnosis of bladder cancer with high specificity and sensitivity. This article reviews the recent research progress of some new urine biomarkers in the diagnosis of bladder cancer.