The treatment of metastasized bladder cancer has been evolving during recent years. Cisplatin based chemotherapy combinations are still gold standard in the treatment of advanced and metastasized bladder cancer. But new therapies are approaching. Based to this fact biological markers will become more important for decisions in bladder cancer treatment. A systematic MEDLINE search of the key words "cisplatin", "bladder cancer", "DNA marker", "protein marker", "methylation biomarker", "predictive marker", "prognostic marker" has been made. This review aims to highlight the most relevant clinical and experimental studies investigating markers for metastasized transitional carcinoma of the urothelium treated by cisplatin based regimens.
Keywords: Adjuvant chemotherapy; Bax; Bcl-2; Biomarker; Bladder cancer; C-reactive protein (CRP); CD40; Chemotherapy; Cisplatin; ERCC1; Emmprin; HER2/neu; Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2); Ki-67; MDR1; Metallothionein (MT); Smac/DIABLO; Survivin; TLX3 gene; Tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA ); Transcription factor TFAP2α; p53.