Next-generation sequencing in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer—a step towards personalized medicine for a superficial bladder tumor

Urothelial bladder cancer is the most common cancer of the urinary system. Exposure to toxins and carcinogens from urine plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of this disease. Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) constitutes around three-quarters of the disease burden of bladder cancer. Treated with non-systemic therapy, it has the potential to progress in about a quarter of patients, causing fatal disease in approximately one out of every ten patients. These factors create the need for further refinement of prognostic and predictive genomic markers as published by Pietzak et al. in June 2017 2014, “Next-generation sequencing of nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer reveals potential biomarkers and rational therapeutic targets” (1)