TIG bladder tumors: at the crossroads of molecular pathways

López Knowles, Elena Cristina

TIG bladder tumors: at the crossroads of molecular pathways

Document Type

Doctoral thesis
Published Version

Author

López Knowles, Elena Cristina

Director

Real, Francisco X.

Publication Date

2006-12-20

Citation

López Knowles, E. TIG bladder tumors: at the crossroads of molecular pathways. Universitat Pompeu Fabra; 2006. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/7150

This citation was generated automatically.

Doctoral program

Programa de doctorat en Biomedicina

Abstract

El cáncer de vejiga es una enfermedad heterogénea. Los tumores se distribuyen en dos vías con cierto nivel de solapamiento: la vía papilar superficial caracterizada por alteraciones de FGFR3 y pérdida del cromosoma 9 y la vía no papilar invasiva caracterizada por alteraciones en las vías de p53 y pRb. Los tumores T1G3 representan el 10% de los tumores de vejiga diagnosticados y representan un desafío clínico debido a su alto riesgo de progresión y la falta de marcadores moleculares que predigan el pronóstico de los pacientes. El objetivo de la tesis ha sido caracterizar los tumores T1G3 y asociar los marcadores evaluados con el pronóstico de los pacientes. La caracterización de los tumores T1G3 ha identificado que la vía de p53 está alterada en un 85% de los casos, que los tumors muestran altos niveles de inestabilidad genómica y que tan sólo el marcador de inestabilidad FGA predice el pronóstico de los pacientes con tumores T1G3. Un nuevo marcador del cancer de vejiga se ha identificado: PIK3CA.
Bladder cancer is a heterogeneous disease distributed into two distinct but slightly overlapping pathways: a papillary superficial pathway characterized by alterations in FGFR3 and loss of chromosome 9 and a non-papillary invasive pathway characterized by alterations in the p53 and pRb pathways. T1G3 tumors are a subgroup of bladder cancers which represent 10% of diagnosed tumors and are a clinical challenge due to their high risk of progression and the lack of molecular markers to predict the prognosis of the patients. The aim of this thesis was to characterize T1G3 tumors and associate these markers with the outcome of the patients. The characterization of T1G3 tumors have shown that the p53 pathway is inactive in 85% of patients, that they have high levels of genomic instability and that only FGA predicts outcome among patients with T1G3 tumors. A novel marker for bladder cancer has been identified: PIK3CA.