Proteomics strategies for urothelial bladder cancer diagnosis, prognosis and treatment: Trends for tumor biomarker sources

Urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) is a heterogeneous multifactorial malignancy with a high recurrence rate. Current procedures for UBC diagnosis suffering from the lack of clinical sensitivity and specificity screening tests. Therefore, biomarkers have promising values to predict pathological conditions and can be considered as effective targets for early diagnosis, prognosis and antitumor immunotherapy. Recently, researchers have been interested for tumor proteins as biomarkers for different diseases. At present, proteomics methods have rapidly progressive that has potential identified biomarkers of UBC. Specifically, there has been several studies on the potential application of proteomics for the identification, quantification, and profiling of proteins for UBC in different sources. Based on these studies, using the panel of biomarkers as proteomic patterns may achieve higher sensitivity and specificity than single proteins in the diagnosis of UBC. In the present review, we evaluate recent literature related to the UBC proteome focusing especially on new proteomics techniques. Moreover, we classify UBC tumor biomarkers as diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic targets based on their sources (urine, serum/plasm, cell line, and tumor tissue) and we also discuss the advantages and limitations of each source. In this manner, this review article provides a critical assessment presentation of the advances in proteomics for all aspects of UBC diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment based on sources. [Display omitted] •Altered expression and structure of proteins effects on function and behaver of bladder cancer cells.•Knowledge about biological changes provided by the proteomics research has the potential role in the development of the next-generation diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic approaches of bladder cancer.•Using the panel of protein biomarkers combine with cystoscopic evaluation may achieve higher sensitivity and specificity than single proteins in the diagnosis of urothelial bladder cancer.