Characteristics of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma in the context of bladder cancer: a narrative review.

Urothelial carcinomas (UC) arise from the urothelium that covers the proximal urethra, urinary bladder, and the upper urinary tract. In daily routine and clinical trials UC originating from different locations are often treated and investigated in the same manner. However, differences between the two locations seem to be apparent and may question in handling them as a single oncologic entity. In this review we discuss similarities and differences between bladder and upper urinary tract UC and consider their potential impact on treatment strategies. Despite similarities of UC in the bladder (BC) and the upper urinary tract (UTUC), clinicopathologic and molecular differences may question to generally assemble both as a single tumor entity. Treatment standards for UTUC are often adopted from BC. However, a specific investigation in the former may still be meaningful as shown by the example of adjuvant cisplatin based chemotherapy. In conclusion, future investigations should prioritize the understanding of the tumor biology of both BC and UTUC. This may reveal which UTUC can be treated according to treatment standards of BC and in which cases, a separate approach may be more appropriate.

A showcase study on personalized in silico drug response prediction based on the genetic landscape of muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Improved and cheaper molecular diagnostics allow the shift from "one size fits all" therapies to personalised treatments targeting the individual tumor. However, the wealth of potential targets based on comprehensive sequencing remains a yet unsolved challenge that prevents its routine use in clinical practice. Thus, we designed a workflow that selects the most promising treatment targets based on multi-omics sequencing and in silico drug prediction. In this study we demonstrate the workflow with focus on bladder cancer (BLCA), as there are, to date, no reliable diagnostics available to predict the potential benefit of a therapeutic approach. Within the TCGA-BLCA cohort, our workflow identified a panel of 21 genes and 72 drugs that suggested personalized treatment for 95% of patients-including five genes not yet reported as prognostic markers for clinical testing in BLCA. The automated predictions were complemented by manually curated data, thus allowing for accurate sensitivity- or resistance-directed drug response predictions. We discuss potential improvements of drug-gene interaction databases on the basis of pitfalls that were identified during manual curation.

Morphologic and genomic characterization of urothelial to sarcomatoid transition in muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

INTRODUCTION: The sarcomatoid morphology of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is associated with unfavorable prognosis. However, the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic relationship between conventional urothelial and synchronous sarcomatoid morphology is poorly defined. METHODS: We compiled a cohort of 21 MIBC patients with components of conventional urothelial and adjacent sarcomatoid morphology within the same tumor focus. We performed comprehensive pathologic and immunohistochemical characterization and in 4 selected cases, subjected both morphologic components to targeted DNA sequencing and whole transcriptome analysis. RESULTS: Synchronous sarcomatoid and urothelial morphology from the same MIBC foci shared truncal somatic mutations, indicating a common ancestral clone. However, additional mutations or copy number alterations restricted to the either component suggested divergent evolution at the genomic level. This was confirmed at the transcriptome level since while the urothelial component exhibited a basal-like subtype (TCGA2014: cluster III, LundTax: basal/squamous-like), the sarcomatoid morphology was predominantly cluster IV (claudin-low). Protein expression was consistent with a basal-like phenotype in both morphologies in 18/21 of cases. However, most cases had evidence of active epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (E-Cad ↓ and Zeb1 or TWIST1 ↑) from urothelial toward the sarcomatoid morphology. Drug response signatures nominated different targets for each morphology and proposed agents under clinical investigation in liposarcoma or other sarcoma. PD-L1 expression was higher in the sarcomatoid than the urothelial component. CONCLUSIONS: Conventional urothelial and adjacent sarcomatoid morphologies of MIBC arise from the same common ancestor and share a basal-like phenotype. However, divergence between the morphologies at the genome, transcriptome, and proteome level suggests differential sensitivity to therapy.

Morphologic and genomic characterization of urothelial to sarcomatoid transition in muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

INTRODUCTION: The sarcomatoid morphology of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is associated with unfavorable prognosis. However, the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic relationship between conventional urothelial and synchronous sarcomatoid morphology is poorly defined. METHODS: We compiled a cohort of 21 MIBC patients with components of conventional urothelial and adjacent sarcomatoid morphology within the same tumor focus. We performed comprehensive pathologic and immunohistochemical characterization and in 4 selected cases, subjected both morphologic components to targeted DNA sequencing and whole transcriptome analysis. RESULTS: Synchronous sarcomatoid and urothelial morphology from the same MIBC foci shared truncal somatic mutations, indicating a common ancestral clone. However, additional mutations or copy number alterations restricted to the either component suggested divergent evolution at the genomic level. This was confirmed at the transcriptome level since while the urothelial component exhibited a basal-like subtype (TCGA2014: cluster III, LundTax: basal/squamous-like), the sarcomatoid morphology was predominantly cluster IV (claudin-low). Protein expression was consistent with a basal-like phenotype in both morphologies in 18/21 of cases. However, most cases had evidence of active epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (E-Cad ↓ and Zeb1 or TWIST1 ↑) from urothelial toward the sarcomatoid morphology. Drug response signatures nominated different targets for each morphology and proposed agents under clinical investigation in liposarcoma or other sarcoma. PD-L1 expression was higher in the sarcomatoid than the urothelial component. CONCLUSIONS: Conventional urothelial and adjacent sarcomatoid morphologies of MIBC arise from the same common ancestor and share a basal-like phenotype. However, divergence between the morphologies at the genome, transcriptome, and proteome level suggests differential sensitivity to therapy.